U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis said in an Oct. 20 post that Democrats want to stop crypto exchanges from creating tokens to meet regulatory capital requirements, focusing the dispute on which assets count toward an exchange’s required financial resources.
The Senate substitute released Sept. 14 by Lummis and Sens. John Boozman and Tim Scott addresses that issue. Under the draft, an exchange could not count digital commodities originated by itself or its affiliates toward the financial resources it must maintain. The provision concerns how exchanges meet that requirement; it does not impose a general ban on creating tokens.
The distinction is central to earlier EconoTimes coverage of the exchange-token provision. Lummis’s description of what Democrats want is her characterization of their position.
That provision sits within the CLARITY Act’s proposed rules for digital assets. The substitute would also require digital commodity exchanges to submit annual financial statements certified by an independent public accountant to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It would require exchanges to retain business records, including a complete audit trail, for five years.
