Four top officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration called on Congress to “intensify its efforts” to regulate the cryptocurrency market in an announcement published on Friday.

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Fast facts

  • Officials warned that it would be a “serious mistake” to enact legislation that would deepen ties between cryptocurrency and traditional finance due to the risk of a broader connotation.

  • “In the past year, the limited exposure of traditional financial institutions to cryptocurrencies prevented the crypto turmoil from infecting the broader financial system,” the four officials wrote: Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council; Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Cecilia Rouse, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

  • The announcement comes after what the White House called a “difficult year for cryptocurrency.” The industry may remember 2022 as the year the Terra-Luna algorithmic stablecoin crashed in May and the crash of Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX.com.

  • The report also urged Congress to expand regulators’ powers to protect client assets, increase transparency and reporting requirements for cryptocurrency companies, and pass stablecoin legislation.

  • Last week, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Kristin Johnson called on Congress to expand the agency’s authority to perform due diligence on any company seeking to buy a minimum 10% stake in a participant. of the registered market.

  • The US House of Representatives created a new congressional subcommittee focused on digital assets in mid-January, as one of its first steps under the control of the Republican Party.

See related article: US Interim Exams: Stagnation…and Progress in Regulating the Crypto Industry?