Trump's $1.4 Billion Crypto Haul Sinks the Senate's Crypto Bill

A failed Senate procedural vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on Tuesday may have saved crypto consumers from a questionable regulatory bill backed by industry insiders. 

The bill—a first-of-its-kind regulatory framework for the crypto industry—would have drawn clear jurisdictional lines between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on regulating the offer and sale of digital commodities.

Instead of the SEC regulating crypto through individual enforcement—which it currently does—the bill would give Americans holding digital assets a pathway to legal certainty by establishing disclosure requirements, preserving both agencies' anti-fraud authorities and creating risk-management, cybersecurity, and compliance standards for decentralized finance. 

Still, the bill also gives federal agencies far too much discretion, authorizing them to set new regulations and exemptions and coordinate with international regulators if it is "in the public interest or for the protection of investors," an invitation for career bureaucrats to decide what's best for Americans.

After a year of bipartisan negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reports the bill failed to pass a procedural vote—which would have allowed it to be fully voted on by the Senate—because Democrats weren't sold on the bill's ethics provisions as strong enough to prevent President Donald Trump "from continuing to profit off digital assets."