Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres introduces crypto laws to convey transparency to exchanges

A consultant for New York’s fifteenth congressional district coming into his second time period, Torres has lengthy been an advocate for cryptocurrency adoption, writing an op-ed in March for the New York Every day Information arguing that crypto might assist his constituents by lowering the charges and delays pervasive in conventional finance, together with for remittance funds.

The 2 payments, referred to as the Crypto Client Investor Safety Act and the Crypto Trade Disclosure Act, would tackle elements that led to FTX’s chapter and the potential lack of billions in buyer funds, together with requiring exchanges to show and publish their belongings and liabilities, in addition to prohibiting exchanges from lending, leveraging, or commingling buyer funds with out their consent.

“Sam Bankman-Fried isn’t consultant of crypto finance any greater than Bernie Madoff is consultant of conventional finance,” Torres stated. “Crypto has a spot within the American economic system, however it have to be fastidiously regulated.” 

Torres was joined by representatives from Bronx Crypto, an organization that organizes and supplies academic instruments to native traders, together with its co-founder, Julio Barrios, who advised Fortune that he nonetheless had $1,000 locked onto FTX US.  

Torres’s payments be a part of a crowded area of crypto laws, together with the Senate Agriculture Committee’s Digital Commodities Client Safety, which signaled in a listening to on FTX final week that it might pause to reevaluate the invoice’s language.  

Torres sits on the Home Monetary Companies Committee, which will likely be chaired by Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) within the subsequent congressional session. Together with the present chair, Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), McHenry developed his personal piece of crypto laws—a stablecoin invoice—though sources conversant in the matter say that it’s nonetheless below dialogue and can doubtless wait till the subsequent session.

Torres stated he believes his payments can work together with any stablecoin laws, arguing that the necessity for transparency holds true for each stablecoins and exchanges. He stated there are good actors within the stablecoin area, together with Circle and Paxos, however singled out Tether, which points the biggest stablecoin by market cap, as an organization about which he’s involved.  

Torres didn’t present a timeline for when he expects dialogue to start on his laws, citing the shift in Home management.

Regardless of his condemnation of FTX, Torres has been linked to the embroiled trade in current articles. On Nov. 29, Blockworks reported that Torres had obtained marketing campaign funds linked to Bankman-Fried however had donated his contribution to an area charity.    

On Nov. 23, the American Prospect reported that Torres was a part of a bunch of eight Home members who had written a letter to SEC chair Gary Gensler questioning the company’s authority to make casual inquiries to crypto and blockchain corporations, which included FTX.

In response to a query from Fortune, Torres stated that was a mischaracterization of the letter, arguing that it was about voluntary requests of knowledge from unregulated corporations.   

“There’s nothing uncommon about Congress asking an company to allocate its assets effectively,” Torres stated. “I might argue the SEC had its priorities within the improper place as a result of it has spent extra time investigating Kim Kardashian than Sam Bankman-Fried.”

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