Congress is criticized by White House officials for not passing crypto rules.

On January 27, four top White House officials published a blog in which they criticized Congress for failing to pass legislation regulating cryptocurrencies. They urged legislators to move quickly on creating a framework for regulating cryptocurrencies.

The White House outlined numerous actions legislators may take to prevent fraud and bad actors in the cryptocurrency business and faulted Congress for the delay in developing a thorough national regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. The authorities thought that Congress needed to exert more effort.

The article outlined numerous steps Congress might immediately do to presumably raise consumer protection rules in the cryptocurrency industry, including:

1. enhancing the authority of federal regulatory organizations like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission (CFTC)
2. Increasingly strict disclosure and transparency standards for cryptocurrency businesses
3. establishing stablecoin regulation by legislation.
4. increasing money for law enforcement, enforcing current financial regulations more harshly, and making such regulations more effective at penalizing intermediaries

The recently sworn-in Republican House of Representatives might make matters worse by easing restrictions at such a crucial time, according to Biden’s advisors.

The remark appears to connect to the recent announcement of the new Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion by the House Republican leadership.

The Biden administration did not prioritize cryptocurrency regulations

However, during the two years from early 2021 to recently, when Democrats had the president, the House, and the Senate, President Joe Biden did not prioritize crypto regulations either. The collapses of the $32 billion cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November and UST in May respectively shook the crypto sector during this time.

There are many cryptocurrency-related measures circulating in Washington right now, but none of them have been put to a vote. The Stablecoin TRUST Act, which would establish a national legal framework for “payment stablecoins,” was presented by the Senate in December.

The Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which would empower the CFTC to regulate cryptocurrency, has also been a topic of discussion in the Senate since last June.
The SEC’s power to regulate the cryptocurrency market in a similar manner would have been constrained by the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), which was passed last August. Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO and creator of FTX, had fought hard for it in Washington. In addition, he has given Democrat and Republican lawmakers tens of millions of dollars in donations.