At a House Agriculture Committee hearing on June 6, CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam said that he is supportive of the new Republican-led bill to give the CFTC greater authority over cryptocurrency, but lawmakers should create a “self-funding mechanism” for the agency and urged that the CFTC be granted additional power to focus on disclosure requirements, financial inclusivity, and trading monitoring. At the same hearing, Democratic members said that they may back the bill if Republicans make a few changes. Democrats are concerned about a provision allowing exchanges, brokers, and dealers to begin trading digital assets while the SEC and CFTC create new rules. They are also worried about whether the CFTC has the necessary resources to fulfill the bill’s proposed responsibilities.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has moved to freeze the U.S. assets of Binance in an effort to protect consumers while the agency pursues the recently-announced lawsuit alleging that Binance has mishandled customer funds.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has announced that the committee will hold a hearing on the future of digital assets at 2 PM on June 13.

Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Stephen Lynch (D-MA) sent a letter to the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service calling for the implementation of tax regulations for the cryptocurrency industry. The pair wrote that Treasury has failed to move forward on regulations outlined in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which would require cryptocurrency brokers to track and report their customers’ transactions to the IRS.

The SEC has charged Coinbase with operating its cryptocurrency trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency, as well as failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program. The SEC alleges that Coinbase has profited off of unlawfully facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset securities since at least 2019.

The United Kingdom’s Crypto and Digital Assets’ All Party Parliamentary Group has released a report on calling for government to introduce crypto financial services regulations swiftly and designate a specific official to oversee the process. The group which released the report includes representatives from various political parties and both houses of Parliament and makes 53 recommendations for regulating the industry.

The SEC has filed suit against Binance, accusing the exchange and its CEO of lying to regulators about its operations, misleading investors about Binance’s ability to detect market manipulation, misusing customer funds, and running an unregistered trading platform, among other accusations. 13 charges were filed against the exchange and CEO.

Republican leaders of the House Financial Services Committee and House Agriculture Committee have released a new bill that would create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency. The bill is reportedly intended to kickstart discussions with House Democrats. Under the legislation, the CFTC would take on new, exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over digital commodities trading that occurs via entities established by the bill: digital commodity exchanges, digital commodity dealers and digital commodity brokers. Crypto tokens would be able to move from the SEC's jurisdiction to the CFTC's through a certification process that would hinge, in part, on the token's network being decentralized.

Over the last few weeks, two bills related to bitcoin mining have passed the Texas legislature and are awaiting the signature of Gov . Greg Abbott (R). SB 1929 would require miners whose energy capacity is larger than 75 megawatts to register with the Public Utilities Commission of Texas as large loads operators and share their data with the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas. HB 591 would introduce tax exemptions for companies that put to use wasted gas including data centers. A third bill, which has been called an “anti-mining bill” failed to make it out of committee.