WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a senior member of the Senate Banking Housing and Urban Development Committee, in Tuesday’s hearing “Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets,” questioned witnesses on the importance of Congress passing legislation to provide strong transparency and investor protections for digital assets.
“The key element I will be looking for in digital asset legislation is a clear prioritization of transparency and investor protection, while also providing for stability and safe innovation,” Menendez said. “These are values that make our current financial system strong and effective, and should equally apply I believe to the digital assets.”
Sen. Menendez also asked witnesses about the existing global trends on crypto regulations, and if the United States is ahead of or behind the curve.
“For decades, the United States has been a leader in the global financial system which has had an immeasurable asset to American consumers and, in my role as the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, our foreign policy goals as well,” Menendez said. “We should look to continue that leadership as we work to develop digital assets regulations.”
Last December, Sen. Menendez called for an increase in crypto oversight and stressed the importance of applying existing regulations to cryptocurrencies in light of the recent FTX collapse.
Sen. Menendez, a leader in the fight to protect consumers and the larger economy from cryptocurrency-related risks, joined a letter last September urging Meta to provide information about the company’s efforts to combat cryptocurrency scams and hold bad actors accountable for cryptocurrency fraud on its platforms.
