Coindesk

The U.S. House of Representatives has taken the first significant move to erase the work of the Internal Revenue Service to impose a tax regime on decentralized financial (DeFi) platforms in the final days of former President Joe Biden's administration.The House Ways and Means Committee — the panel responsible for overseeing the Treasury Department's IRS — advanced a resolution in a 26-16 vote to reverse the IRS transaction-reporting policy under the Congressional Review Act. Such an effort requires majority approval in both the House and Senate before a presidential signature would make the move final, and the matter now moves to the overall House.In December, the IRS had approved a system that the crypto industry says forces DeFi protocols into...

Bank of America, which has historically taken a backseat in the crypto industry, is prepared to launch its own dollar-backed stablecoin if U.S. lawmakers approve legislation allowing it to do so, its CEO said Tuesday.“If they make that legal, we will go into that business,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in an interview with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.Moynihan said that he believes there will certainly be a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, arguing that given these digital assets function just like money market funds or bank accounts. This is dependent on Congress passing legislation; lawmakers and White House Crypto and AI Czar David Sacks have suggested legislation may move within President Donald Trump's...

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) could have an even stronger Republican majority when the chairman picked by President Donald Trump arrives, with the announcement on Wednesday that Democratic Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero will step down after that expected confirmation.If Trump nominee Brian Quintenz, a former Republican commissioner at the agency, is approved by the U.S. Senate, the Democrat's exit will leave just Commissioner Kristin Johnson to represent the agency's minority party. This leadership shift would take place at a particularly meaningful moment for the agency, when its expected leading role in crypto is being worked out in Congress and past resistance to the industry is being stripped away with the already active overhaul of CFTC personnel."History has shown...

Having served as the first chief of the SEC’s crypto unit from 2017 to 2019, I’m often asked what kind of crypto enforcement we should expect to see from the new administration. My first answer is that I do not know. My second answer is that I believe it will be different, but it will not disappear.To anticipate the future of crypto enforcement, we should begin by reviewing the past.The beginningThe SEC’s crypto enforcement unit was formed in 2017 during the first Trump Administration. The early focus was on one, fraud, and two, core capital raising events. Regulation of capital raising is the principal purpose of the Securities Act of 1933. When an investor gives money to an entrepreneur who...

Former U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who retired in January, has joined Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as a senior advisor.McHenry announced his new role at the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm in a Wednesday X post. McHenry was the acting Speaker of the House for a few weeks in 2023 after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted.“For too long, D.C. has created barriers for startups and emerging companies. It’s time to level the playing field and ensure that Little Tech – the next generation of builders – gets a fair shot. As a policy maker, I promoted solutions that removed bureaucratic barriers for American entrepreneurs. At I am eager to continue that work and ensure policymakers understand why...