U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), together with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) and Senators Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), has released a discussion draft of new digital asset market structure legislation. The draft, which builds on principles developed in collaboration with Chairman Scott, aims to provide a clear regulatory framework for the digital asset industry.
“The time for regulatory uncertainty in the digital asset space has come to an end,” said Lummis. “This discussion draft represents a thoughtful, balanced approach that will provide the clarity our innovators need while providing robust consumer protections. We cannot allow regulatory confusion to continue driving American innovation overseas. Market structure legislation will establish clear distinctions between digital asset securities and commodities, modernize our regulatory framework, and position the United States as the global leader in digital asset innovation.”
The proposed legislation addresses distinctions between centralized firms and decentralized protocols, recognizing their different risk profiles. It also notes that distributed ledger technology has applications beyond finance and describes tokenization as an advancement in financial infrastructure aimed at improving efficiency and transparency.
Senator Lummis and Chairman Scott are seeking feedback from stakeholders through a Request for Information on both the draft text and related questions. Interested parties can submit input via MarketStructure_RFI@banking.senate.gov.
A copy of the discussion draft is available here.
