WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke with Ji Kim, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, The Honorable Rostin Behnam, Distinguished Fellow at Georgetown University, and Tom Sexton, President and CEO of National Futures Association, during a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (Ag) Committee hearing on federal oversight of digital commodities. During the hearing, they discussed the need for the U.S. to be a leader in digital assets.
Read Sen. Tuberville’s remarks below or on YouTube or Rumble.
TUBERVILLE: “Mr. Kim, you touched on this very briefly in your opening statement. The E.U. and U.K. are moving quickly to attract blockchain-based innovation. What risk are we at in the United States? What are we gonna face if we don’t get more urgent about what’s going on?
I recently talked to some exchanges and they’re freaking out basically about, ‘Hey, we’ve gotta do something or we’re gonna move out of the country.’ What [are] your thoughts?”
KIM: “Thank you very much for your question, Senator. As I mentioned in my testimony, it is a global race to the top. So other jurisdictions have not been waiting for the U.S. to lead. You have the E.U., Singapore, Japan, U.K. [are] all looking into technology resources. I see block chain development and digital assets as the plumbing and infrastructure for the second half of the 21st Century. We need the U.S. to lead.
That said, despite the progress in other jurisdictions, everyone is watching the U.S. now. They’re seeing the Senate having passed [the] GENIUS [Act], they’re seeing development on the market structure bill, including in this Committee. And even the U.K. is actually a really good example, Senator, where they had been taking a very modular, patient approach, but recently they announced an all-at-once approach. And I believe that there’s an opportunity for the U.S. to cement this leadership and make sure this innovation stays here in the U.S. — and that starts with a comprehensive incentive framework as I discussed, Senator.”
TUBERVILLE: “Thank you. Mr. Sexton [do] you want to follow-up on that? You got anything on that — about us dragging our feet?”
SEXTON: “Senator, I encourage this Committee and the House to continue to work on legislation in this area. I think it’s very important. I can tell you that from our perspective, we have, as I indicated, member firms are already engaged in this activity. And to the extent that the CFTC would be provided with not only anti-fraud, but also regulatory oversight over digital commodities, I think it’d be very helpful as far as our own regulatory structure here.”
TUBERVILLE: “Thank you.
Mr. Behnam, the U.S. model of having two regulators — and we touched on this briefly — only works if there are clear jurisdictions. You’re very familiar with that. Can you talk about the need to clear up, you know, this regulatory definition between CFTC and the SEC?”
BEHNAM: “Senator, thanks for the question. It’s the first and most important step because from that point, the two agencies will be able to really start to develop rules either distinctly and uniquely or in a joint fashion. But this is certainly a new asset that has a lot of characteristics that are similar to other assets but also have a lot of characteristics that are novel and new and are gonna require a different way of thinking about it. So, I do think it’s critically important. I also think, putting myself in my old shoes, it is important that the agencies get a bit of a steer from this Committee in Congress because there are lines that I think this committee and the Congress can draw to help the agencies start to really define the landscape of what tokens are securities and what tokens are commodities.”
TUBERVILLE: “Thank you. I yield back.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.
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