Republican lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee have called on the SEC to withdraw proposed rulemaking for crypto exchanges, citing concerns over the broadened definition of "exchange" under Rule 3b-16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
The lawmakers warned that the proposed amendment could impact a wide range of individuals, including cryptocurrency software developers, blockchain consensus participants, and decentralized finance (DeFi) systems.
They also urged the SEC not to extend Chairman Gary Gensler's view that many cryptocurrencies are securities to platforms that handle those cryptocurrencies, arguing that the proposed change could "shoehorn" blockchain technology into old regulations rather than promoting development and customer protection.
The SEC's proposed rule change has been under consideration since September 2020, and has faced opposition from industry members including Coinbase.
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