'It's Not Complicated': Bernie Moreno Clashes With Witness Over Memecoin Regulation

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) asked former CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad about the regulation of cryptocurrency.

Transcript

00:00thank you senator Marino thank you chairman Scott and thank you for doing

00:04this hearing you know it's something mr. Massad said which I thought was

00:09fascinating was that we've had times that we could have passed market

00:15structure regulation and Congress hasn't done it there hasn't ever been a market

00:20structure regulation bill marked up by the Banking Committee so I'm just not

00:25sure where that came from that there was this idea that market structure

00:28regulations have been attempted before it's ever been attempted but members mr.

00:32Massad just for your sake I just want to clarify a couple things that you said to

00:34make sure you meant to say what you said did you call Bitcoin a native token it's

00:40often referred to as a native in other words Bitcoin and ether referred to as

00:44native tokens so you're saying ether and Bitcoin are the same well I'm

00:49classifying both of them is what you call native tokens of the blockchain so you're

00:53you're saying that a native token is how you would describe Bitcoin it's already

00:57clear that it's a term that's used to describe when you have a blockchain and

01:03you have the token that allows you to use that blockchain that's often called a

01:07native token yes got it and therein lies exactly why we need to have this market

01:12structure regulation because the idea that we would turn over this industry to

01:18some bureaucrat working at some agency is insane because that would make it so that

01:24no American company would ever invest in a digital asset company in the United States

01:29of America when you had people who are just completely not lacking the

01:33fundamental technical base this reminds me of the Facebook ad where the little

01:38ladies sitting there taking pictures off a physical wall and the guy saying yeah

01:42none of this works this way crypto Bitcoin is a commodity now so there was a lot of

01:47talk about meme coins and NFTs so let me ask you this follow-up question

01:50Senator Feinman I was the guy who declared Bitcoin a commodity

01:55this is the great this is a great part about being insider I get to ask you the

01:58questions okay so were you prohibited by law to cooperating with the SEC no why

02:05didn't you I did so no but you just said that what we should do is have the CFTC

02:10and the SEC work together yes man they do that well when I was there I did that

02:15sir so what I'm saying is you're trying to try to be the regular you're saying you

02:21solved all these problems when you were at the CFTC with the SEC no problems

02:26okay so you didn't solve all the problems if you want us to have the SEC and the

02:30CFTC work together that but what you really want is you want Congress to

02:34abdicate his responsibilities no unelected not at all not at all yourself

02:38as with Jay Clayton the public appointee is a is a you a baseball fan I assume

02:43you're a Red Sox fan up there at Harvard no I live in Washington sir oh geez

02:47so beats all right so is a baseball card a a security no what's the difference

02:55between a baseball card a meme coin sir no just what's the difference how would you

03:01explain to me technically they're both you could classify them both as

03:05collectibles is it the government's rule to prevent me from paying five

03:09million dollars for 1952 Mickey Mantle I think people should be allowed to

03:13invest in whatever they want to invest in sir so that does that does that mean

03:16meme coins as well if they want to buy and sell meme coins that's fine but you

03:22don't have a regulatory framework for certain financial instruments we've

03:25learned about the years I mean that's useful talk about meme coins do you think that the

03:28government the SEC or the CFTC should regulate meme coins I think we should

03:33have an investor protection framework over this over financial instrument I'm

03:39going to think they want to decide you say yes financial and are you saying yes

03:43it's just simple because I again we only the chairman is very strict only lets us

03:46have five I understand that senator saying yes or no I think you might

03:50appreciate that that it's a more complicated issue than that at least what I

03:54would hope you go DC it's not complicated should the SEC or the CFTC

03:58regulate meme coins the SEC has already said it won't and that's fine with me okay

04:02but I'm happy to create a category that's neither a security or a commodity should

04:08we include baseball cards and that as well no I don't think we're talking about

04:12baseball cards here sir what's the difference because we're talking about a

04:16particular technology of tokenization here's what I want we're not talking about anything

04:22that people here's what I want my colleagues to understand how many

04:25business people work at the SEC and the CFTC how many entrepreneurs how many

04:30people who started companies work I don't have the that information sir let's

04:33say not and then let me just finish this with mr. Painter just something that you

04:37said which was also equally staggeringly insane you said that Congress should not

04:43own crypto correct so members of Congress should not be investing in the crypto

04:48industry they said it I didn't know the crypto you know it is very clear if you

04:53have your own mean point I don't know sir I don't have your own time out it's

04:57said you shouldn't you should know crypto I said you shouldn't be investing in the

05:01crypto industry if you have your own crypto trading platform I should own

05:05baseball cards either I because because Congress regulates all fresh Congress

05:09regulates professional baseball no I said am I allowed to have money in a bank

05:13account you're allowed you should be allowed to do what executive branch

05:17officials to do and it would be a criminal offense for an executive branch

05:20official under laws passed by this Congress to regulate the crypto industry

05:24while holding an interest in a crypto firm that is just a law and Congress passed

05:30that law and posted on everyone else except for members you want to finish your

05:34thought on this yeah my point is for some reason I don't understand why maybe it's

05:39just a generational problem it seems like the crypto industry that people of a

05:44certain generation just afraid of it and and that fear and lack of knowledge and

05:49having the humility to know that you just don't know the technological issues

05:53here has made this industry just reticent on understanding that there's a whole

05:59new world and by the way the 1946 securities law should not be dictating what

06:04we're doing today and I think I hope that my colleagues understand it is this is not

06:08this is a generational issue it's not a Democrat versus Republican issue and if

06:12you took the time to just understand the technology I think it would be easier

06:15for us to move forward

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