All eyes are on stablecoins: Law Decoded, April 10–17

cointelegraph.com:

Last week came in preparation for April 19, when the United States House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on stablecoins. The hearing will include information collected by various federal government agencies over the last year. Among the participants are Jake Chervinsky, the chief political officer at the Blockchain Association, and Dante Disparte, the chief strategy officer of Circle. 

On the hearing threshold, a new draft bill appeared in the House of Representatives document repository. The draft provides a framework for stablecoins in the United States, putting the Federal Reserve in charge of non-bank stablecoin issuers. According to the document, insured depository institutions seeking to issue stablecoins would fall under the appropriate federal banking agency supervision, while non-bank institutions would be subject to Federal Reserve oversight. Failure to register could result in up to five years in prison and a fine of $1 million. Foreign issuers would also have to seek registration to do business in the country.

Among the factors for approval is the ability of the applicant to maintain reserves backing the stablecoins with U.S. dollars or Federal Reserve notes, Treasury bills with a maturity of 90 days or less, repurchase agreements with a maturity of seven days or less backed by Treasury bills with a maturity of 90 days or less, and central bank reserve deposits.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced it will be revisiting the proposed redefinition of an “exchange” under the agency’s rules — a move that could include crypto market participants in decentralized finance (DeFi). Under the proposal, an “exchange” would be more closely defined as a system that “bring[s]