In a richly detailed and deeply reasoned new report, the Center for American Progress (CAP) pokes holes in the recently popular notion that crypto assets require a “new” or “special” regulatory structure, arguing instead that crypto assets are simply “new digital versions of traditional financial products that have been regulated for generations.”
The report, authored by Todd Phillips and Alex Thornton, warns Congress against “regulatory carveouts that provide special treatment to new versions of old products,” and forcefully and exhaustively makes the case that “regulators already maintain significant authority from decades-old statutes to begin to address the vast majority of concerns that crypto assets pose,” and to the extent that additional clarity needed, it is already “available to those willing to scratch the surface of the existing regulatory apparatus.” In short, Congress need not and ought not legislate; not now, and maybe not ever.
The report is remarkable, not only because it is such a deep dive, but because it takes direct aim at the basic assumptions and assumed truths around which the crypto industry is constructing a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign aimed at the 117th Congress.
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