Senator Lummis, a prominent supporter of Bitcoin and the crypto market in general, has advocated for the companies and actors involved in the current regulatory push.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the interest in regulating cryptocurrencies is justified by the fact that they stopped being “specialized products in search of a purpose and began to have a more traditional presence such as speculative investments, protections against weak currencies and possible payment instruments.”
In the face of growing global regulatory pressure on the crypto industry, the Biden administration’s intensifying crackdown and actions by regulatory bodies have led Senator Cynthia Lummis to issue a strong statement against the US government’s stance on the industry.
Lummis Condemns Justice Department’s “Hyper-aggressive” Stance
Lummis expressed deep concern and objected to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) “hyper-aggressive” argument that non-custodial software could be classified as a money transmission service. The senator considered this position to be contradictory to existing Treasury guidance, lacked common sense and violated the rule of law.
Lummis further emphasized that arguments against self-custody software represent a threat to the fundamental property rights that are intrinsic to being an American. Lummis affirmed her commitment to fighting for people’s rights to own their keys and operate their nodes, expressing dismay at the Biden administration’s criminalization of the fundamental principles of the Bitcoin (BTC) network and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Senator Lummis had previously disapproved of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) intensifying crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry throughout 2023. Criticizing the SEC’s actions as “unnecessary” and “overreaching,” she specifically opposed the agency’s controversial new cryptocurrency policy, known as Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, issued in March 2022.
Lummis had also filed an amicus brief in support of exchange Coinbase against the SEC’s lawsuit, arguing that Congress should be responsible for formulating crypto regulations instead of the SEC. The pro-cryptocurrency senator argued that the SEC had exceeded its mandate by attempting to classify nearly all crypto assets as “securities,” thereby infringing on Congress’s legislative authority and extending beyond the agency’s jurisdiction.
Clear Guidelines for the Regulation of Cryptocurrencies
In another statement supporting key players in the crypto market, Senator Lummis called for immediate action to establish clear regulatory guidelines in response to Judge Analisa Torres’ ruling that XRP should not be considered a security.
At the center of the debate is the Howey test, a legal standard used to determine whether an investment qualifies as a security. Lummis has emphasized the importance of preserving the integrity of this test while recognizing the need to properly apply it to digital assets.
To address these issues, Senator Lummis, working with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, introduced the Lummis-Gillibrand bill. The legislation aims to provide regulatory clarity for digital assets like XRP, aligning their treatment with the interpretation of the Howey Test established by the Southern District of New York.
The market’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is trading at $57,800 after hitting a low of $56,400 in the early hours of Wednesday. According to CryptoPredictions, Bitcoin started in May 2024 at $135.300 and is predicted to finish the month at $60,832.272. During May, the maximum forecasted BTC price is $68,302.039 and the minimum price is $135.300. The BTC Price is forecasted for today (02.05.2024) to be in the $56,609.085 – $83,248.655 price range. Bitcoin is predicted to end today at $66,598.924.
By Audy Castaneda
