Crypto-Skeptic Sen. Sherrod Brown Is Open to Advancing Stablecoin Legislation, Bloomberg Reports
In the House, Rep. Patrick McHenry recently said he remained optimistic about getting a U.S. stablecoin law passed.
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a crypto-skeptic who runs the influential Senate Banking Committee, is open to advancing long-sought legislation for stablecoins, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing an interview with him.
Brown, according to Bloomberg, said that his concerns would have to be addressed before he would fully get behind a stablecoin law, however.
Congress has for years struggled to get any new laws passed for cryptocurrencies, providing greater clarity sought by both critics and proponents of digital assets. Stablecoin legislation may, nonetheless, be the lowest-hanging fruit given that stablecoins strongly resemble other regulated products like money-market funds, and there's a strong incentive to create guardrails since they own important conventional assets like U.S. Treasuries.
Brown's reportedly tentative support to advance legislation could be an important sign progress can be achieved. His Democratic Party controls the U.S. Senate and thus sets legislative priorities. Over in the Republican-controlled House, soon-to-retire Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) recently said he remains optimistic the U.S. can get a new stablecoin law this year.
Nick Baker
Nick Baker is CoinDesk's deputy editor-in-chief. He won a Loeb Award for editing CoinDesk's coverage of FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, including Ian Allison's scoop that caused SBF's empire to collapse. Before joining in 2022, he worked at Bloomberg News for 16 years as a reporter, editor and manager. Previously, he was a reporter at Dow Jones Newswires, wrote for The Wall Street Journal and earned a journalism degree from Ohio University. He owns more than $1,000 of BTC and SOL.