CryptoLink - May 2023

Washington is in a period of closely divided government. The Democrats have the White House; the Republicans have a bare majority in the House; and Democrats have a bare majority in the Senate. In practice, this means policy gridlock absent serious bipartisan work. It remains the case that policy around digital assets and cryptocurrency does not break down on traditional partisan lines, leaving some optimistic that bipartisan legislation could come together providing greater regulatory clarity to the industry. As was the case last year, there are two distinct paths for legislation around digital assets: (i) stablecoin legislation and (ii) market structure legislation (providing clear authority to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to regulate spot markets for crypto commodities).