U.S. Senate Committee Proposes Principles for Digital Asset Legislation

According to Foresight News, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has announced a set of principles for developing market structure legislation. These principles were released by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Cynthia Lummis, Senator Bill Hagerty, and Senator Thom Tillis. The guidelines aim to direct discussions and negotiations with industry participants, legal and academic experts, and government stakeholders regarding the legislative text. The market structure principles emphasize the need for legislation to clearly define the legal status of digital assets. They advocate for a clear distinction between digital asset securities and digital asset commodities within regulations. The principles also suggest considering existing laws to provide predictability, enhanced legal precision, and much-needed regulatory certainty. Furthermore, the principles call for a clear delineation of jurisdiction among regulatory agencies. They also recognize that not all distributed ledger technologies should fall under the regulation of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).