Cryptocurrency rules should be Congress’ focus, key lawmaker says

A key member of the House Financial Services Committee wants to see lawmakers focus next year on oversight of the “muddied and fairly opaque” markets for initial coin offerings and trading digital tokens.

Representative Bill Huizenga, a Michigan Republican who could be a contender to lead the panel if his party keeps control of the House, said Congress needs to work with regulators to ensure cryptocurrency investors are protected. Agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission or Commodity Futures Trading Commission could get power to oversee these markets with rules similar to those now governing stocks or currencies, he said.

A key challenge for lawmakers is figuring out how to classify digital currencies, Huizenga said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office on Thursday.

“Everyone’s trying to figure out whether it’s fish or fowl,” he said. “It turns out it might be a platypus. It’s kind of an unknown, or something sort of in between. How do we deal with that?”

 

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