This reads like it was written by the bill's sponsors. Let me add what you left out.
Yes, self-custody wallets aren't directly regulated. Neither is your mattress. The question is what happens when you try to use what's in either one.
The bill creates a surveillance perimeter around every regulated touchpoint. 5-year audit trails. Real-time trade monitoring. International data sharing with foreign central banks. The moment you interact with any on-ramp, off-ramp, exchange, or broker, you're in the system.
Your cold wallet is an island. Congratulations. Now try buying groceries.
On DeFi, you're cherry-picking the good parts. The bill's definition of "decentralized finance trading protocol" requires that NO person or group can "control or materially alter functionality" and that it operates SOLELY on pre-established rules in source code.
Got a governance token? Admin key? Upgrade mechanism? Emergency pause function? You probably fail the test.
Most existing DeFi protocols don't qualify under this definition. The "protection" protects a platonic ideal of DeFi that barely exists in production.
And the bill grants the CFTC broad authority to "further define" these terms by rule. What's protected today can be narrowed tomorrow. You're celebrating definitions that haven't been written yet.
The summary says "if you don't touch the money and you don't control the trade, you're not regulated."
More accurate: if you don't touch the money and you don't control the trade and no one in your governance structure has any influence and your code has never been upgraded and you have no admin functions and the CFTC doesn't later decide to redefine the terms, you're not regulated.
For now.
This bill doesn't ban self-custody or DeFi. It doesn't need to. It just makes sure that everything around them is fully captured. That's not protection. That's containment with extra steps.
https://t.co/DasDElNeYB
After reviewing the Senate Banking draft text over the last 48hrs, Coinbase unfortunately can’t support the bill as written.
There are too many issues, including:
- A defacto ban on tokenized equities
- DeFi prohibitions, giving the government unlimited access to your financial records and removing your right to privacy
- Erosion of the CFTC’s authority, stifling innovation and making it subservient to the SEC
- Draft amendments that would kill rewards on stablecoins, allowing banks to ban their competition
We appreciate all the hard work by members of the Senate to reach a bi-partisan outcome, but this version would be materially worse than the current status quo. We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill. Hopefully we can all get to a better draft.
We'll keep fighting for all Americans and for economic freedom. Crypto needs to be treated on a level playing field with the rest of financial services so we can build this industry in a safe and trusted way in America.
Warren Buffett has said: "I could end the deficit in five minutes. You just pass a law that says that any time there’s a deficit of more than three percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election."
Do you agree with him?
If Representative Dingell thinks giving Congress a 40% raise is 'serving the people' then she should give up her seat.
This is NOT serving the People when our Seniors get a 2.5% cost of living raise on their social security checks.
We're not as stupid as U think, Dingell.
Shut the government down.
The People demand it.
Bitcoin is already the global reserve asset.
Anyone can buy or sell virtually any amount of BTC at any time in any country on any device for a known price without any necessary intermediary.
Nothing else is like this.