Congress
Who’s expected to testify before Congressional hearings on FTX?
United States lawmakers have been pushing for certain witnesses — including Sam Bankman-Fried — to appear before committee hearings scheduled in December. Who should the crypto space expect to see testifying on the events leading to the downfall of FTX? On Dec. 9, Bankman-Fried, or SBF, said — under threat of a potential subpoena — that he was willing to speak at a U.S. House hearing aimed at exploring FTX’s collapse. Leadership with both the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee had suggested that they might subpoena the former FTX CEO, prompting SBF to say on Twitter he was “willing to testify” on Dec. 13. At the time of publication, SBF’s name did not appear as a witness in the House committee’s ‘Investigating the Collapse of FTX, Part I’ hearing — suggesting m...
US lawmakers question federal regulators on banks’ ties to crypto firms
Two members of the United States Senate have called on the heads of federal financial regulators to address “ties between the banking industry and cryptocurrency firms” in the wake of FTX’s collapse. In letters dated Dec. 7 to Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation acting chair Martin Gruenberg, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith — both on the Senate Banking Committee — acknowledged that the crypto industry was not so “deeply integrated” with traditional financial institutions to severely impact markets after FTX’s bankruptcy filing. However, the two lawmakers pointed to reports suggesting ties between FTX and the Washington-based Moonstone Bank as well as stablecoin issuer Tether and the Bahamas-...
US House committee chair pushes back against SBF’s excuse to potentially delay testimony
Maxine Waters, chair of the United States House Financial Services Committee, has called out former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for announcing on social media he intended to testify after “learning and reviewing what happened” at the exchange. In a Dec. 5 Twitter thread, Waters cited Bankman-Fried’s numerous media interviews in the wake of FTX’s bankruptcy as evidence that his information was “sufficient for testimony” before the committee. Waters will preside over a hearing investigating the collapse of FTX on Dec. 13, in which committee leadership said they expected Bankman-Fried and other individuals associated with the events around the exchange’s downfall to appear. “The collapse of FTX has harmed over one million people,” said Waters, in a statement directed to Bankman-Fried. “Your tes...
Dems and Reps join forces to pressure SBF to testify before Congress
The leadership with the United States House Financial Services Committee have separately called on former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to appear in an investigative hearing scheduled for Dec. 13. In Dec. 2 posts on Twitter, House Financial Services Committee chair Maxine Waters, a Democrat, and ranking member Patrick McHenry, a Republican, requested SBF speak at a hearing aimed at investigating the events around the collapse of FTX. It’s unclear if the U.S. lawmakers intended the former FTX CEO to appear in person or remotely from the Bahamas. “[Sam Bankman-Fried], we appreciate that you’ve been candid in your discussions about what happened at FTX,” said Waters. “Your willingness to talk to the public will help the company’s customers, investors, and others.” “As you said, [Sam B...
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries Officially Becomes House Dem Leader, First Black Person With The Gig
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Drew Angerer / Getty In a historic moment, Hakeem Jeffries officially became the Democratic leader of the House making him the first Black person to lead a political party in either chamber of Congress. On Wednesday, Nov. 30, Jeffries was chosen as the minority leader representing the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives. The Democrats chose the congressman from Brooklyn by acclamation vote in a private meeting. Jeffries took over for Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who had served as Speaker of the House for many years before announcing that she would step down from leadership earlier this month. After a raucous celebration that included Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala) leading a call-and-response chant using the “if you don’t know, now you know” lyric from The N...
SEC chair’s crypto oversight strategy in question as ecosystems collapse
While regulations are often aimed at protecting citizens from bad actors, the effectiveness of crypto regulations in the United States is in question owing to the colossal fall of major exchanges and ecosystems over the past year — FTX, Celsius, Voyager, and Terra (LUNA). Congressman Tom Emmer showed concerns about the oversight strategy implemented by Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the crypto ecosystem. Emmer has been vocal against Gensler’s “indiscriminate and inconsistent approach” toward crypto oversight. On March 16, the Congressman revealed being approached by numerous crypto and blockchain firms that believed Gensler’s reporting requests to be overburdensome and stifling innovation. We are even more concerned now as we’ve...
US Sen. Warren and Durbin demand answers from Bankman-Fried and his successor at FTX
United States Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Durbin wrote to the former and current CEOs of FTX — Sam Bankman-Fried and John Jay Ray III, respectively — on Nov. 16 to ask for more information on the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. They made 13 requests for documents, lists and answers. “The public is owed a complete and transparent accounting of the business practices and financial activities leading up to and following FTX’s collapse,” the lawmakers wrote. They provided a summary of the major press coverage of the unfolding events and reconstructed a timeline from the media sources. Noting “the apparent lack of due diligence by venture capital and other big investment funds eager to get rich off crypto” among the issues they identified, they wrote: “These developments just...
Thousands petition for congressional investigation of alleged Gensler–SBF links
Almost 4,000 people have used a CryptoLaw petition app to demand that Congress investigate United States Securities and Exchange Commission head Gary Gensler’s “actions in the FTX fraud,” the organization claimed in a tweet on the morning of Nov. 14. The CryptoLaw website is run by lawyer John Deaton, who is representing Ripple against the SEC and contributes frequently to the public discourse on the case. The petition reads, in part: “Evidence has emerged that proves that Gensler met with […] [FTX CEO] Sam Bankman-Fried, before the $14 billion collapse of FTX. Members of Congress have already been informed that Gensler was working with Bankman-Fried to give FTX a regulatory free pass while a massive fraud was going on right under the SEC’s nose. […] It’s time for a full Congressiona...
US lawmakers question regulators over ‘revolving door’ with crypto industry
Several Democratic members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives have requested information from top regulators and agencies in the country regarding crypto firms hiring government officials upon their departure. In letters dated Oct. 24 addressed to the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, five U.S. lawmakers asked for a response in regard to the steps the government departments and agencies were taking “to stop the revolving door” between themselves and the crypto industry. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-C...
US lawmaker says crypto regulation from SEC is ‘needed now’
John Hickenlooper, a United States Senator representing Colorado, has penned a letter to Gary Gensler urging the Securities and Exchange Commission chair to establish “clear rules” for the crypto market. In an Oct. 13 letter, Hickenlooper called on the SEC to take action on regulatory issues including identifying the cryptocurrencies that will be considered sasecurities, establishing registration guidelines for trading platforms, and “determining what disclosures are necessary for investors to be properly informed.” According to the senator, the lack of a coordinated regulatory framework from the government has led to uneven enforcement, while the SEC is the agency “well positioned to offer regulatory guidance.” “Given the complexity of these issues, and recognizing that some digital asset...
US lawmakers request Justice Dept share CBDC assessment
Republican members of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee have requested the Department of Justice provide its assessment and legislative proposals regarding a digital dollar within ten days. In an Oct. 5 letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, 11 Republican lawmakers asked the Justice Department for a copy of its “assessment of whether legislative changes would be necessary to issue a CBDC,” as required by President Joe Biden’s executive order on digital assets issued in March. The House members claimed the “appropriate place for the discussion” on legislation concerning a central bank digital currency would be in the U.S. legislative branch rather than the federal executive department. “The House Committee on Financial Services […] has spent considerable ...
US lawmaker hints at calling for Republican votes in 2022 midterms over crypto policies
North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry may have used his virtual appearance at a cryptocurrency conference as a soapbox to call for votes in the 2022 United States midterm elections. In a prerecorded message for the attendees of the Converge22 conference in San Francisco on Sept. 29, McHenry suggested that the goal of a “clear regulatory framework” for digital assets could drive U.S. lawmakers to develop legislation. The Republican lawmaker used terms including “bipartisan consensus” and support from both major political parties over certain regulatory frameworks related to digital assets and stablecoins before seemingly encouraging crypto users to vote red in the next election. “To ensure that these technologies flourish here in the United States, we need to provide regulatory clar...
