GOP Congress Establishes First Subcommittee on Digital Assets

The chairman of Congress’ first subcommittee on digital assets, under the House Financial Services Committee, is a dyed-in-the-wool product of the TradFi world. This in itself isn’t surprising, given there aren’t a lot of DeFi people who have matriculated to Congress, yet.

The Arkansas Republican does have a high score with the conservative Heritage Foundation, while at the same time he doesn’t stand out in terms of the nature of the bills he’s sponsored that have passed. He looks to be cut from the usual Republican, neoconservative cloth. We look forward to seeing if Hill grows into the role beyond repeating the usual talking points in the 2023 session.

U.S. Congress’ “first ever” subcommittee on digital assets has been created as part of the House Financial Services Committee. “We want to create a regulatory legal framework for digital assets … that makes America a leader from an innovation point of view but also protects consumers and investors,” explained Congressman French Hill, who will lead the digital asset subcommittee.

US Lawmakers Form ‘Congress’ First Ever Digital Assets Subcommittee’

The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services has created a subcommittee on “Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion.” Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, commented:

I’m proud to announce Congressman French Hill as the chairman of Congress’ first ever Digital Assets Subcommittee and vice chair of the full Committee.

The tasks of the new subcommittee include “Providing clear rules of the road among federal regulators for the digital asset ecosystem, developing policies that promote financial technology to reach underserved communities, [and] identifying best practices and policies that continue to strengthen diversity and inclusion in the digital asset ecosystem,” the House Financial Services Committee explained.

McHenry believes that Congressman Hill (R-AR), a former community banker and U.S. Treasury official, has the necessary experience and expertise to tackle this undertaking. “There is no one I trust more with one of my top priorities,” he emphasized.

“I look forward to working with him to provide clear rules of the road for this ecosystem that protect consumers, while allowing innovation to thrive here in the U.S.,” McHenry added, noting: Fintech — particularly digital assets — holds immense promise as a tool to build a more inclusive financial system.”

What really grinds our gears in the article is the general, dismissive attitude of the mainstream media towards the whole crypto industry.

“Digital assets are something that need oversight and need consumer protection and need the right framework,” Hill detailed on CNBC in reply to a question about whether cryptocurrency should be legal in the U.S. or whether it is a Ponzi scheme. [emphasis added]

“We want innovation for fintech and the use of blockchain to be available in the United States,” he continued, elaborating: We want to have the U.S. to be a leader so we want to create a regulatory legal framework for digital assets, including digital payments, that makes America a leader from an innovation point of view but also protects consumers and investors.

The media needs to do better, and frankly our industry needs to do better in educating the media.