In advance of his plans to present an ICO-related bill to Congress this year, Republican representative Warren Davidson invited a select group of crypto heavyweights to Capitol Hill to discuss future legislation.
Davidson, who represents Ohio’s 8th congressional district, gave the nod to 32 delegates of U.S. venture capital firms, cryptocurrency exchanges and non-profits—including Union Square Ventures, Ripple, Kraken, InterContinental Exchange and Nasdaq, according to documents obtained by Axios.
The congressional forum, which takes place Sept. 25, will purportedly examine “light touch” regulation—which in June, Davidson said would dissolve some of the legal question marks currently hovering over cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs).
Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box in June, Davidson stated:
There’s been some concern as the SEC started to regulate that everything starts looking like a security to a securities regulator, and we want to make sure that the United States capital markets stay strong and vibrant — and one of the ways to do that is to provide regulatory certainty.
Congressman Davidson: Crypto’s Ticket to Regulatory Approval?
While the politician has not revealed the exact workings of his upcoming ICO bill, an aide told Axios the issue was raised with the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) on several occasions.
Judging by previous comments, Davidson’s bill will likely seek to clarify which ICO assets are to be deemed securities or commodities—a categorization that has proved notoriously influential over the valuation of cryptocurrencies.
A cloud of speculation hung over market-leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum for months in early 2018, with investors deliberating over the SEC’s legal view of the tokens. Finally, in mid-June, the commission appeared to catalyze a multi-billion-dollar bull rally when it announced that the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization were not securities.
To those concerned with regulatory matters, the congressman’s invitation may be seen as an equally weighty move.
Davidson brokered one of the first direct dialogues between cryptocurrency leaders and the SEC to date, and as a member of the U.S. Committee on Financial Services, his desires may carry more weight than most.
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