Sens. Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand release their draft crypto regulation bill, seeking to empower the CFTC over the SEC, a win for the industry
The proposal would hand crypto oversight to the CFTC, which the sector views as friendlier than the SEC
That jurisdictional question persisted through the senators’ later stablecoin proposal and culminated in the Senate Banking Committee’s Clarity Act framework, which similarly places most crypto under the CFTC while reserving digital securities for the SEC.
First-order effects
Lummis and Gillibrand give crypto companies and the CFTC a concrete congressional blueprint for CFTC-led oversight, aligning with the sector’s stated preference for that regulator.
The SEC becomes the institutional loser in the draft’s proposed framework, as its claim to broad crypto-market authority is displaced in favor of the CFTC.
Second-order effects
The proposal forces the regulatory debate toward defining which tokens and activities belong with the CFTC versus the SEC, making agency jurisdiction the key issue for subsequent market-structure legislation.
State-level enforcement proposals, including New York’s CRPTO Act, gain a clearer contrast: federal lawmakers are weighing a national allocation of authority while states seek broader powers over crypto firms.
Third-order effects
If Congress follows this framework, US crypto regulation shifts from enforcement-led boundary setting toward a statutory market split between commodities-style oversight and securities oversight.
The longer legislative path suggests that stablecoins and broader market structure will be negotiated as connected parts of crypto’s bid for regulatory legitimacy, not as isolated policy questions.
The trend: US crypto policy is consolidating around legislation that assigns primary market oversight to the CFTC while carving out digital securities for the SEC.
I am working diligently with @sengillibrand to finalize bill text of our comprehensive digital asset legislation. Any language circulating online is an incredibly outdated version from March 1. Stay tuned for our release of the actual bill on June 7th!
@SenLummis @SenGillibrand Crypto appreciates your leadership @SenLummis. Would you like to join us on the @BanklessHQ podcast to discuss this important legislation with the crypto community?
Today, I'm introducing the Responsible Financial Innovation Act alongside @SenGillibrand. The United States is the global financial leader, and it's absolutely critical the U.S. plays a leading role in this new frontier. https://www.lummis.senate.gov/ ...
This bill doesn't even have a number yet, so this is hardly news worthy. Most tokens are unregistered penny stock offerings. They would fall under SEC https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
America was once known for making actual things. Now after trade deals destroyed U.S. manufacturing, Congress is focused on boosting/deregulating fake “mining” of digital code for speculators, which also creates carbon emissions amid the climate crisis. https://www.politico.com/.…
4) The biggest news of the week is the unveiling of @SenLummis and @SenGillibrand's large crypto regulatory bill. This is the Senate's 2nd major bipartisan effort on crypto regulation and will be impactful for years to come. Read @samjsutton's story here https://www.politico.com/…
Thank you for your patience. I'm excited to FINALLY get this out the door. There will almost certainly be provisions you like. Perhaps there will be provisions you oppose. Getting this right will be hard but worth it. Give me (constructive) feedback. https://twitter.com/...