Hi, Inbar here.

Since the House passed FIT21, a bipartisan bill that could reshape US crypto, industry pundits have been on a victory tour.

But let’s get one thing straight: The bill is far from becoming law. Policy watchers say the chances of it passing the US Senate are slim.

It’s also received harsh words from the White House, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, and a flurry of lawmakers.

But after years of regulatory and enterprise battles, the crypto community is chalking it up as a win.

Especially builders behind decentralised platforms, which often fall through the cracks of existing legal frameworks.

Under FIT21, sufficiently decentralised digital assets would qualify as commodities. One of the criteria is that issuers or so-called affiliated persons can’t hold over 20% of the token and voting power for a project.

Centralised tokens that don’t meet this condition would qualify as securities. As such, they’d fall under the purview of the SEC (while decentralised tokens would be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission).

Is it clear enough for the crypto industry?

Nearly, says Rashan Colbert, head of policy at decentralised trading platform dYdX Trading.

“It may be hard for folks to meet different decentralisation thresholds and this movement back and forth between the two regulators will likely be extremely cumbersome in practice,” he told DL News.

The CFTC regulating a commodity spot market is also unusual, Colbert added.

Still, it’s a big step — especially for DeFi projects.

“The bill provides an enhanced level of comfort knowing that we have explicit authority to keep doing what we’re doing, which is really all we want at the moment,” he said.

Reach out to me at [email protected].

Crypto Movers and Shakers

• Advocacy group CryptoUK has a new policy director, Suzanne Morsfield. Morsfield is also global head of accounting solutions at crypto data provider Lukka.

• Teana Baker-Taylor, former head of global policy at Circle, has joined Bitcoiner Erik Voorhees as COO in a new AI venture, Venice.

• Base, Coinbase’s layer 2 network, is on the lookout for a product legal counsel.

• Ten of the biggest crypto exchanges have more than 1,200 job openings, with Binance, Coinbase and OKX leading the hiring spree.

• The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is looking for two senior advisors on crypto policy.

• Kraken is seeking a senior risk officer.

• The European Central Bank is seeking a market infrastructure expert for its digital euro project, with applications closing on Tuesday.

Movers and Shakers is a new monthly feature in The Guidance. If you’re a legal, compliance, regulatory, or public affairs professional in crypto and making a career move, send a short bio and headshot to [email protected].

Story of the Week

SEC greenlights Ethereum ETFs — but consumers will have to wait to buy them

Post of the Week

After Former President Donald Trump said he would protect crypto in the US at the Libertarian National Convention this weekend, he made another promise should he be elected.

Trump said he would immediately reduce the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the dark web platform Silk Road who is now serving a lifetime in prison. Silk Road was known to be one of the early use cases for Bitcoin.

Comment of the Week

DL News is an independent news organisation that provides original, in-depth reporting on the largely misunderstood world of cryptocurrency and decentralised finance. From original stories to investigations, our journalism is accurate, honest and responsible.

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