Senate Hearing says “HODL” bitcoin 🏰 🏰 🏰

The following is a paraphrased synopsis of the Senate Hearing on Cryptocurrency with the Chairman of the SEC and CFTC. If you want to review everything to its entirety, it is highly suggested that you watch the hearing yourself. I picked all of the content that I thought was the most relevant and that I felt got answered in a clear way. This doc is to help people understand the government side of crypto and is not to be referenced as a guideline or an authority.

The overall sentiment from the Senate and the SEC and CFTC Chairmen was positive. Both sides appeared to support and encourage the new cryptoasset class and its respective technology, abite illegal entities, “frauderster”, and rogue nations. It appears that both the SEC and CFTC chairmen have done their research, to the tune of The Honorable Giancarlo referencing bitcoin mining and the term “HODL”.

https://www.risk.net/regulation/4126411/giancarlo-orders-review-of-cftc-rules

Witnesses:

The Honorable Jay Clayton
Chairman U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission

The Honorable J. Christopher Giancarlo
Chairman U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Opening Remarks from The Honorable Jay Clayton

Opening Remarks from The Honorable Christopher Giancarlo

Senator Crapo: Both agencies claim to not have full jurisdiction over virtual assets.

Clayton

Giancarlo

Senator Brown: How much of the $4 Billion in ICOs was raised in the US?

Clayton

Senator Brown: How will you stay on top of the growing industry of virtual currency?

Clayton

Senator Shelby: How are you going to put together a task force to deal with cryptocurrencies?

Giancarlo

Senator Shelby: Do you need additional legislation?

Clayton

Senator Reed: Do you have the personal to understand cryptography and the technology behind it?

Clayton

Giancarlo

Senator Reed: Are you tracking all of the daily emerging cryptocurrencies and are you looking at the systemic effects of the cryptocurrency market? This is eerily similar of the late 90’s derivatives market that exploded ten years later.

Clayton

Senator Rounds: Is bitcoin a commodity, a security or both?

Giancarlo

Senator Perdue: How do you regulate arbitrage, (South Korea and China)?

Giancarlo

Senator Perdue: What are you doing to combat pump and dumps?

Giancarlo

Senator Donnelly: What other ways are you preventing retail investors from falling victim to fraud?

Giancarlo

Senator Donnelly: What would you say to seniors that are looking to bitcoin for retirement?

Giancarlo

Clayton

Senator Donnelly: How are you planning to work with law enforcement and federal authorities to make sure cryptocurrency is not used by terrorists and North Korea?

Giancarlo

Clayton

Senator Kennedy: When you bought your investment fund did you read the prospectus of the fund?

Giancarlo

Senator Kennedy: What’s the point of having disclosure if no one is reading it?

Giancarlo

Senator Kennedy: How far do you think we should go with regulation?

Clayton

Senator Warner: Do you believe that this will elevate to an FSOC (Financial Stability Oversight Council) level?

Clayton

https://smartereum.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Senate-Crypto-Hearing-1-810x538.jpg

Senator Warner: I think we have moved too fast on allowing bitcoin futures trading. I think cryptocurrency will be as revolutionary as the cell phone market and we will need a coordinated effort.

Giancarlo

Senator Cotton: What are your thoughts of the underlying technology involving blockchain and distributed ledger?

Giancarlo

Clayton

Senator Cotton: What are the factors driving the extreme volatility in bitcoin?

Clayton

Senator Cotton: What does that volatility portend for cryptocurrencies future as a potential as legal tender for nation states?

Clayton

Senator Menendez: Does the SEC and CFTC have a role to play in the use of foreign countries using cryptocurrency to evade US sanctions?

Giancarlo

Senator Menendez: ICOs went from $96 Million in 2016 to $4 Billion in 2017. A lot of ICOs are using celebrities to promote their coin. What can the SEC do to protect consumers?

Clayton

https://media.coindesk.com/uploads/2018/02/hud-e1517937234744.jpg

Senator Menendez: Why is the SEC not comfortable with approving ETFs with significant investments in cryptocurrencies?

Clayton

Senator Cortez Masto: Companies are using blockchain as an opportunistic scheme to pump up their stock (i.e. Kodak, Long Blockchain, formerly Long Island Iced Tea Corp). What is your response to this?

Clayton

Senator Cortez Masto: More than 3 million bitcoins have been stolen and multiple exchanges have been hacked. If consumers lose their money, what can they do to get their money back?

Clayton

Giancarlo

Senator Shelby: From a regulatory standpoint do you see anything amiss in regards to the market correction (I believe he is referencing the traditional market i.e. S&P 500 and NYSE)?

Clayton

Giancarlo

Senator Warren: How do we make ICOs safer and why has not one ICO tried registering with the SEC?

Clayton

Thank you for reading this piece, I hope you found it useful! If you are interested in continuing the conversation, we would love to have you in our Telegram group Crypto Cooperative: https://t.me/cryptocooperative

Resources from related government agencies:

Official Page of the hearing

https://www.banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?ID=D8EC44B1-F141-4778-A042-584E0F3B9D39

Testimony from J. CHRISTOPHER GIANCARLO before the hearing on Feb 6th

https://www.banking.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/d6c0f0b6-757d-4916-80fd-a43315228060/A2A6C1D8DDBB7AD33EBE63254D80E9E3.giancarlo-testimony-2-6-18b.pdf

Testimony from Jay Clayton before the hearing on Feb 6th

https://www.banking.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/a5e72ac6-4f8a-473f-9c9c-e2894573d57d/BF62433A09A9B95A269A29E1FF13D2BA.clayton-testimony-2-6-18.pdf

CFTC webpage on Bitcoin (as referenced in the hearing)

http://www.cftc.gov/bitcoin/index.htm

Lab CTFC webpage (as referenced in the hearing)

http://www.cftc.gov/LabCFTC/Overview/index.htm

SEC Statement on Cryptocurrenies and Initial Coin Offerings

https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/statement-clayton-2017-12-11

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Data Driven w/ strong Fundamentals, crypto evangelist, never ending learner, music and art nerd. I also play good tunes for cool people. twitter:@adamgdev

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adamgdev

Data Driven w/ strong Fundamentals, crypto evangelist, never ending learner, music and art nerd. I also play good tunes for cool people. twitter:@adamgdev