According to a CNBC report published on Monday, U.S. Congressman Warren Davidson (representing Ohio’s 8th congressional district) is hosting a discussion in Washington, DC today on how cryptocurrencies should be regulated; this will be attended by around 50 representatives from Wall Street, venture capital firms, and the crypto industry.

The congressional roundtable being hosted by the Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives is titled “Legislating Certainty for Cryptocurrencies,” and it comes ahead of an ICO-related bill he is planning to introduce at the House this autumn. 

Back in May 2018, according to Politico, Congressman Davidson, who is a prominent member of the Committee on Financial Services, said during a House floor speech:

“I intend to lead legislation for initial coin offerings to clarify the role of regulators, protect consumers, address national security concerns, and facilitate a pro-growth environment for businesses to raise capital.”

While speaking to CNBC's Squawk Box on 21 June 2018, Davidson talked about the need for “light touch” regulation for the ICO market:

“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.”

CNBC says that amongst the attendees for today’s meeting are representatives from Fidelity, State Street, Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, the Nasdaq, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Ripple, Coinbase, and Circle; also, representatives Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Tom ,Emmer (R-Minn.) French Hill, (R-Ark.), and Darren Soto (D-Fla.) are expected to provide opening remarks during the meeting.

In a letter to the invitees, Davidson wrote: “Your input is critical to helping us preempt a heavy-handed regulatory approach that could stall innovation and kill the U.S. ICO market.” There are eight questions that Davidson hopes will get answering during this meeting, such as “What is the best way to protect consumers from fraud?”; also, according to a spokesperson for the congressman, the meeting will “cover private funding disclosures and token issuance laws.”

On 21 September 2018, as covered by CryptoGlobe, Congressman Tom Emmer (MIN-06), who was recently named a co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, announced that he would be introducing “three groundbreaking bills to support blockchain technology and digital currencies.” Congressman Emmer said:

“The United States should prioritize accelerating the development of blockchain technology and create an environment that enables the American private sector to lead on innovation and further growth, which is why I am introducing these bills.

“Legislators should be embracing emerging technologies and providing a clear regulatory system that allows them to flourish in the United States.”

The titles of the three bills are “Resolution Supporting Digital Currencies and Blockchain Technology”, “Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act”, and “Safe Harbor for Taxpayers with Forked Assets Act.”

Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pexels.com