The 116th U.S. Congress reveals 40 Crypto and Blockchain bills

Amidst Covid-19 pandemic fiasco US Congress have introduced 40 crypto and blockchain bills in 2019-20, out of which two have now become law.

By Komal Joshi · Oct 20, 2020 . 7min read

There seems to be no curtailment of interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain policy in D.C. as the U.S. Congress have introduced a total of 40 bills in the 116th Congress. The 116th U.S. Congress assembled on January 3, 2019, and will terminate on January 3, 2021.

According to the blog post, out of the 40 bills interjected, the House of Representatives has approved 11 out of which two have become law. The laws form a vital portion of the appropriations process. However, one signifies a briefing to Congress about the impact of cryptocurrency on economic sanctions. Whereas the other states, the Department of Defense’s usage of blockchain technology.

Amongst the nine bills approved by the House of Representatives, they await the decision of the U.S. Senate. Moreover, as for the bills are concerned, three bills entail the Department of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It states the actions to explore blockchain and digital identity technologies. Moreover, it intends to enhance the data analysis and distribution of data to other law enforcement bodies.

List of bills passed by U.S. House of Representatives

The House of Representatives approved the Financial Technology Protection Act of 2019 (H.R. 56) by Congressman Ted Budd (R-NC) and Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-MA) on January 4, 2019. The bill involved building an Independent FinTech Task Force to Combat Terrorism and Illicit Financing. Additionally, it presented a reward for terrorists discovered utilizing digital currencies. After that, the Homeland Security Assessment of Terrorists’ Use of Virtual Currencies Act was passed by the House of Representatives on January 29, 2019. Moreover, the bill claims Homeland Security to lead an assessment of terrorist usage of virtual currencies.

Consequently, the Fight Illicit Networks and Detect Trafficking Act or the FIND Trafficking Act was introduced in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate by Representative Juan Vargas (D-CA) and Senator Catherine Cortez-Mastro (D-NV). Subsequently, the dwelling three bills that made it out of the House of Representatives comprise of the Blockchain Innovation Act (H.R. 8153), The Advancing Blockchain Act (H.R. 6938), and part of the Digital Taxonomy Act (H.R. 2154).

Percentage classification of Crypto and Blockchain bills

If we try to classify the following 40 bills, they can be distributed in four consequent categories. The analysis by percentage comprises the ‘Regulatory Clarity for Crypto and Blockchain Companies’ at 40%, ‘Use of Cryptocurrency by Terrorists, Money Launderers, Human and Sex Traffickers’ at 30%. Moreover, the ‘Use of Blockchain Technology In Government & Business’ stands at 22%, and the ‘Digital Dollar’ legislation at 8% according to the classification.

However, 30 out of 40 bills that would impact cryptocurrencies or enhance criminal usage have not become law over the last two years in the U.S. Seeing the percentage distribution; we can conclude that the only actions impacting the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry are from agencies or financial regulators themselves.

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