WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC) today released a new report, Digital Assets: A Framework for Regulation to Maintain the United States’ Status as an Innovation Leader, providing recommendations to help guide policymakers in developing a more closely coordinated response to the regulation of digital assets.
Digital assets are anything with ownership or use rights which are issued or transferred using digital technology infrastructure such as blockchain, rather than in physical form. The digitalization of assets has the potential to revolutionize how goods and services are offered, bought and how value is transferred for generations to come. However, the quick rise of digital assets based on blockchain technology has often outpaced the willingness of regulators to ensure digital assets are accommodated in order to foster innovation.
“The United States is a global innovative leader, but if we don’t get our act together, we may lose our competitive edge in digital assets,” said U.S. Chamber Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness Vice President Julie Stitzel. “The current piecemeal approach to digital asset regulation holds back innovation and must be modernized so these technologies are able to thrive in the United States—benefiting consumers and the economy. Analog thinking endangers American leadership in digital assets and we cannot afford the cost.”
Given the rapid pace at which digital asset innovation is developing and being applied, especially over the past year as the global pandemic has accelerated the trend toward digitization, the stakes are too high to fall behind. The Chamber’s new report has a focus on financial services regulatory systems due to their significant impact on digital assets and related blockchain innovation, and outlines several recommendations for promoting innovation in the digital assets space, including:
- Implement technology-neutral regulation
- Implement principles-based regulation
- Avoid regulation by enforcement
- Ensure good faith compliance
- Establish regulatory flexibility
- Create digital asset categorization
- Establish a White House Task Force focused on digital assets
For the full list of recommendations and details on each, you can read the full report here.
