SENATE SHOWDOWN: There’s a war breaking out in the U.S. Senate over crypto. Late Thursday night, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Sen. Warner (D-Va.) submitted an amendment to the Senate infrastructure bill looking to narrow the tax reporting requirements on crypto businesses. The 11th-hour change was reportedly made at the behest of Janet Yellen at the U.S. Treasury and has the backing of the White House. That may explain why the bill does not go far enough. In a near-inexplicable move, the amendment favors proof-of-work mining over all other consensus mechanisms, which many analysts believe will fracture the domestic crypto industry.
Earlier Thursday, Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) proposed a much more comprehensive amendment to ensure miners, node operators, developers and other non-custodial crypto industry participants are exempt from the (impossible) crypto tax reporting provision.
You can call your senator and learn more about the amendment process here.
TERRITORIAL WATCH DOGS: Government turf wars aren’t limited to Capitol Hill. CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz tweeted Wednesday that the sister agency SEC does not have jurisdiction over “pure commodities or their trading venues,” including “crypto assets.” This follows remarks by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler earlier this week implying most digital assets were under his purview.