Regulation
Sen Lummis suggests plans for personal custody
With the recent trend in cryptocurrency regulation in the United States, pro-crypto legislator Senator Cynthia Lummis is pledging to advocate for more favorable regulations in the future.
Promote self-custody regulation of cryptocurrencies
Many crypto industry leaders have criticized the lack of regulatory clarity in the United States, a trend that lawmakers like Cynthia Lummis hope will change soon. In her latest comment on the social platform X, the senator seems ready to challenge the concept “It’s not your keys, not your coins”.
This is a concept that generally discourages centralized custody of cryptocurrencies. This defense against this concept became popular after the bankruptcy filing of FTX Derivatives Exchange. With billions in user assets stuck in bankruptcy proceedings, crypto activists have begun advocating for self-custody.
Due to the slow pace of regulation in the industry, digital currency trading platforms have innovated to prevent bank runs on their deposits. Introduced by Binance Exchange, these trading platforms have started issuing verifiable Proof of Reserves (PoRs). This PoR report has now become a tradition and is published monthly. Shows the relationship between user balances and the trading platform’s resources to meet requests.
This method is still largely based on the discretion of the exchange. In Senator Lummis’ comment,
“I will fight to protect the right of every American to self-guard their private keys. Property rights are fundamental to decentralization and resistance to censorship.”
Not your keys, not your coins. 🔑
I will fight to protect every American’s right to self-keep their private keys.
Property rights are central to decentralization and resistance to censorship.
— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) May 25, 2024
It remains uncertain whether he will sponsor a bill in the Senate or play a role in pushing for more clarity with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in this regard. Overall, Senator Lummis is supporting a congressional trend to build a new pro-crypto army.
America is gradually pivoting
While the debate over cryptocurrency regulation remains volatile, the ground is changing for the better. In January the SEC gave the green light Spot Bitcoin ETF products for trade. This approval marked the end of a more than 10-year wait for the product by the same regulator.
Despite the debate over whether Ethereum should be classified as a stock, the SEC made a complete about-face earlier this week. The turning point came with the consensus of the 8 Spot ETF on Ethereum products, a monumental achievement for the industry.
With the progress made so far, fueling self-custodial crypto regulation could soon become a long-term reality.
To know more: Grayscale’s Bitcoin dominance is threatened as Blackrock’s IBIT Eyes leads