It has been revealed that US Rep Warren Davidson has recently announced plans to launch legislation that would regulate cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs). The minister has shown interest in introducing the new legislation at the Blockchain Solutions conference.
The bill is likely to create an “asset class” for cryptocurrencies and digital assets. The minister further asserted, “This would prevent them from being classified as securities, but would also allow the federal government to regulate initial coin offerings more effectively.”
According to sources, this regulation will bring clarity to US crypto regulations. Currently, the state bodies classify tokens differently, depending on the jurisdiction they are placed. Cryptocurrency has varied interpretation across commissions. The Securities and Exchanges Commission considers the cryptocurrency as securities, whereas the Commodity Futures Trading Commissions treats it as commodities. Needless to say, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Know Your Client, both view crypto as money. Interestingly, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) treats cryptocurrency as property, which means that the profits obtained from selling them are taxable.
This means that the Bitcoins has valuation at par with gold since it does not have government liabilities nor is it backed by the government. Given the show of intent by the minister, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, enforcing economic sanctions views the crypto as money and blacklists wallets of sanctioned persons.
The differences in opinions between agencies have led the US Congressional representative to send a letter to the SEC Chairman Jay Clayton demanding “clearer guidelines between digital tokens that are securities.”
Coming back to Davidson’s view of the cryptocurrency, Davidson previously extended his support for the same. He suggested that the ICO market needs “light touch” regulation. According to a report by the Cointelegraph, seven Ohio funds are likely to hand over $300 million in blockchain startups by the end of 2021. Of this, $100 million is expected to be invested by JumpStart.
Update on Bitcoin
According to a report by the Forbes, Bitcoin is likely to regain its market dominance in the new year. In an attempt to state the facts exactly, the A.T Kearney report said, “By the end of 2019, Bitcoin will reclaim nearly two-thirds of the crypto-market capitalization as altcoins lose their luster because of growing risk aversion among cryptocurrency investors.”
This was predicted by experts after the rigorous “hash war” that occurred in the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem. The Bitcoin had a lousy year in 2018, after it lost 73% of the value, bringing down the entire cryptocurrency market.
Experts, however, opine, “That doesn’t mean that all altcoins will go away. Some survive and grow up to be explosive enterprises, that have real products and generate real and substantial revenues. altcoin will follow somewhat that same pattern.” Speaking to the Forbes, Steve Russo, Executive VP Eclypses, further added, “Those that are whimsical and have no real value will vaporize, while the real ones will not only survive but thrive over time. “
The 2018 slide owes it to several reasons, like the altcoin proliferation, which, in turn, expanded the horizontal supply of cryptocurrencies. Following that, there was a lack of transparency in the cryptocurrency market, thus scaring investors away.