Congress Members Raise Concerns over US Treasury’s Cryptocurrency Rule

US Congressman, Tom Emmer, along with seven other Congress members sent a letter to the US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin demanding a comment period extension of the proposed FinCEN regulation for cryptocurrency assets. The letter states that the 15 day comment period is too short to have a meaningful discussion on the newly proposed cryptocurrency KYC rules.

Congress members, Tom Emmer, Warren Davidson, David Schweikert, Ted Budd, Bill Foster, Suzan K. DelBene, Darren Soto and Tulsi Gabbard wrote a letter to Mnuchin and asked the US Treasury to extend the comment period to at least 60 days. The letter mentioned that a rushed process would threaten the legitimacy of the proposed cryptocurrency rule.

“We write to express our concerns regarding the process to respond to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) related to requirements for certain transactions involving convertible cryptocurrency or digital assets. We are concerned that the Treasury Department’s approach to establishing complex new rules for the recordkeeping and reporting of convertible virtual currency and legal tender digital asset transactions do not afford the American public a reasonable opportunity to respond,” the official letter states.

Implementation Extension

Additionally, Congress members asked the Treasury Secretary to delay the implementation of the proposed rule by at least six months to give all stakeholders an appropriate timeframe to develop the technological solutions that will be required to implement any final rule. FinCEN requested comments on the proposed cryptocurrency regulations in December. According to the proposed regulations, crypto exchanges will be required to verify the identity of crypto wallet owners if the transaction exceeds $3,000.

US Congress members mentioned in the recent letter that the 15 day comment period is too short for the public and the stakeholders. “This is a highly complex rulemaking as the 24 detailed questions that FinCEN asks in the notice attest. It would be impossible for the public to give a meaningful comment with so little time, and a rushed process threatens the legitimacy of this rule. It also makes the new regulations very susceptible to legal challenges,” the letter cites.