According to a statement released by the spokesperson of Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, there is a bill in the works to repeal certain provisions on cryptocurrencies (including the definition of a broker) in Biden’s recently enacted 1.2 trillion dollar Infrastructure Bill.
“Broker”, the mistake in the Infrastructure Bill
Specifically, the senator would like to remove the paragraph defining the reporting requirements for “brokers” in the digital asset sector.
In fact, this attempt was already made in August in the Senate with an ad hoc amendment, which was then scuttled. Now Ted Cruz is trying again with a law.
The infrastructure package was signed on Monday by US President Joe Biden.
But the cryptocurrency world is in turmoil because of some of its provisions, which would be considered punitive for the sector.
Senator Cruz stated:
“As a deliberative body, the Senate should have done its job and held hearings to properly understand the consequences of legislating on this emerging industry before we risked the livelihoods and privacy of participating Americans”.
He then concluded:
“I urge my colleagues in the Senate to repeal this harmful language that will create regulatory uncertainty and in turn an unnecessary barrier to innovation”.
Infrastructure Bill hits the crypto world
The Infrastructure Bill, a massive $1.2 trillion public works plan over the next ten years, also contains some provisions on cryptocurrency taxation and regulation, which the cryptocurrency world has heavily criticized.
The bill envisages a cryptocurrency taxation plan of around $28 billion.
But what is generating the most heated discussions is the provision that would include cryptocurrency exchanges among financial brokers. It is this provision that Senator Ted Cruz would like to repeal.
The provision requiring exchanges to report all transactions over $10,000 to the IRS (US tax agency) is also unconstitutional.
Dr Amber Ghaddar, co-founder of DeFi startup AllianceBlock, strongly criticized the measure, asserting that the cryptocurrency world has a very different infrastructure from traditional finance and, therefore, applying rules that apply to traditional finance to the crypto sector
“shows a lack of understanding on the part of the government”.
The post Infrastructure Bill, a law to review crypto brokers appeared first on The Cryptonomist.
