White House receives SEC's crypto asset interpretation proposal for evaluation
A proposal from the financial regulator seeking to redefine the application of federal securities laws to cryptocurrency assets awaits evaluation at the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
A proposal from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would exclude most cryptocurrency assets from classification as securities under federal law has been submitted to the White House's Office of Management and Budget for consideration.
Data accessible via the US General Services Administration indicates that on Friday, the SEC transmitted a pair of proposed regulations to the White House for evaluation, which included the interpretative notice released the previous week concerning which digital assets the regulator might classify as a security under federal law.
By Monday, official government documentation indicated the proposal had a status of "pending review" at the White House, with the potential to transform the SEC's approach to both regulation and enforcement activities concerning digital assets.
Through a notice released by the SEC the previous week, Chair Paul Atkins announced that the regulator would exclude four categories of digital assets from being classified as securities within its jurisdiction: digital commodities, digital tools, digital collectibles — which include non-fungible tokens — and stablecoins. According to the interpretation, this framework would establish a "coherent token taxonomy" for the agency regarding these four asset categories and clarify how a "non-security crypto asset" might or might not qualify as an investment contract.
Should the SEC rule receive final approval, it would serve as an interim solution for crypto regulation pending Congressional passage of a market structure bill designed to establish comprehensive regulations for digital assets. This interpretation of federal securities laws came after the execution of a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) — the additional federal financial regulator anticipated to oversee digital assets under the proposed market structure bill — which occurred earlier this month.
White House reportedly reached "agreement in principle" on crypto bill
According to a Friday report from Politico, White House representatives and Congressional lawmakers have reached an agreement on stablecoin yield provisions that could move the market structure bill forward in the Senate Banking Committee. The committee had indefinitely delayed its markup of the bill, known as the CLARITY Act, back in January after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated the exchange was unable to support the legislation in its current form.
As of Monday, no new date for the bill's markup had been publicly disclosed by the banking committee. Senate Majority Leader John Thune was reported to have stated in March that the chamber planned to give priority to a vote on the SAVE America Act — a piece of legislation that would mandate voters to present proof of US citizenship in person during registration — ahead of bills enjoying bipartisan support, including CLARITY.