Congressional committees get mixed messages on cryptocurrency regulation! What happen next?

Two separate Congressional committees Wednesday got mixed messages on cryptocurrencies, hearing the full gamut of opinions ranging from banning them to embracing them with reasonable regulation.

The first up in the morning was a hearing of the House Committee on Agriculture on “Cryptocurrencies: Oversight of New Assets in the Digital Age,” with a variety of witnesses including venture capitalists, government officials and other experts.

Headlining the witnesses was Daniel Gorfine, director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s financial technology initiative, who cautioned against too-hasty regulations.

Again “We all have the shared goal to bring clarity and certainty to the market but also need to be sure that we are thoughtful in our approach and do not steer or impede the development of this area of innovation,” Gorfine was reported as saying. “Indeed, while some may seek the immediate establishment of bright lines, the reality is that hasty regulatory pronouncements are likely to miss the mark, have unintended consequences or fail to capture important nuance regarding the structure of new products or models.”

At last Gary Gensler, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, told the committee that he encouraged speeding up decisions about sensible regulations in order to keep innovators in the United States & all around the world so far.