The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has “ample room to maneuver” in regulating digital assets even without congressional action, Chairman Paul Atkins said Friday.
The remarks by the agency’s new head at a crypto event in Washington come while Congress is debating the contours of a market structure bill for digital assets that could clarify whether the SEC or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission should be the primary regulator of the growing asset class.
“It’s always good to have Congress’s input; if there’s a statute to back up what we’re doing, I think that’s all the better,” Atkins told reporters at a public roundtable on regulating crypto assets held at the SEC’s headquarters.
Lawmakers and industry groups, notably a16z, a major investor in digital asset firms, are also debating whether to combine passage of the market structure bill with another one to regulate stablecoins. That legislation has already passed the relevant committees in the House and Senate, but still needs to be approved by each chamber.
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