The largest bank in Switzerland, UBS, has said that crypto regulations in the US could be a long way coming. Regulatory pressure has been piling up on regulatory bodies in the US, such as Congress, to regulate the crypto sector.
This report comes as the level of crypto adoption sits at all-time highs, with major Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan opening their doors to crypto investments.
US crypto legislation could take time
UBS issued a statement following a lengthy hearing from the House of Financial Services Committee. The hearing was about creating a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
According to UBS’s US Office of Public Policy, several aspects of this meeting hinted at crypto legislation being a long way coming. A senior Treasury official addressed the stablecoin report from the Department of the Treasury and other regulatory bodies.
“To fill in regulatory gaps and address financial stability concerns, the regulators would like Congress to develop legislation that regulates stablecoin issuers as banks,” the Treasury official said.
The Federal Reserve had initially said that it would wait upon Congress to give the go-ahead on developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Due to the conflicting statements given by different regulatory bodies in the US, UBS said that “it will take time for lawmakers to digest the complexities of these issues and reconcile potentially divergent approaches on how digital assets should be regulated.”
The banking giant concluded that regulatory bodies “could be waiting for a long time” before Congress could take any form of action. Hence, these bodies can only regulate the sector using the limited authority they currently have. Despite the lack of regulatory clarity, UBS noted interest in cryptocurrencies was growing.
Conflicting views on crypto
Some reports have stated that the Biden administration would issue an executive order giving a direction on where crypto regulations in the US will go. However, the views of legislatures remain split.
Last year, the controversial Infrastructure bill was passed. While some legislatures were quick to vote for the bill, others opposed it saying that it failed to clarify some terms. Senator Ted Cruz was among those that bashed legislatures for passing a bill on an issue they failed to understand.
“We shouldn’t regulate something that we don’t yet understand. We should actually take the time to try to understand that. We should hold some hearings, we should consider the consequences,” the pro-Bitcoin senator said.
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