US Crypto Regulations Will Likely Fall In Place After 2024 Election: Paradigm Policy Director

U.S. crypto regulations seem to be stalled until after the 2024 election cycle, Paradigm Policy director Justin Slaughter told The Block.

Despite the “holding pattern,” policymakers are starting to see beyond the crypto volatility to appreciate the underlying technological innovation, he adds.

Slaughter, who has extensive experience serving in various leadership roles at the SEC and CFTC, expects ongoing action on the stablecoin bill, market structure (Fit21) bill.

He does expect the stablecoin bill to be passed but before the election.

The optimism around the stablecoin bill is due to the use cases of the tokens that they are applied to for the growth and development of the related industries.

Also Read: How Crypto Exchanges Should Be Regulated: Challenges And Scenarios For 2024 And Beyond

Fit21 aims to create a regulatory rubric between the SEC and CFTC. It will label assets as securities, take them to decentralized tokens and then be regulated as commodities. This bill would be like the MiCA in Europe and the regulation that the U.K. has adopted.

Slaughter, who was also General Counsel to Massachusetts Senator Edward J. Markey, states that regulators should be more responsive to changing technology by updating regulations.

“There are ways in which attacking the questions of crypto leads to wins for the industry for consumers for investors, for the regulators as well and I think that is the mindset that I wish was more prevalent," he said.

He adds that new things tend to be more volatile like cryptocurrencies but established assets like gold, and cotton are less volatile in trading.

Slaughter adds that crypto has never been so special or in focus for any agency of the U.S. Neither the FTX crackdown nor any crypto scams have led the agency to focus on the rules and regulations to be designed for the crypto industry.

In 2022, the investor community thought that Bitcoin was nothing and would fade off but after seeing the persistent existence of the crypto assets it came into the limelight to regulate the crypto industry.

With 20% of American voters owning crypto or who have traded in crypto, it surely has an impact on the agency to take a call for implementing crypto regulation in the state, he adds.

Also Read: SEC Commissioner Declares 'No Reason For Us To Stand In The Way' Of Bitcoin ETF: Is Gary Gensler Listening?