…Researched and contributed by Solomon Thomas.
The United States House Committee on Financial Services has announced that it will hold a hearing on April 19 to discuss stablecoins’ position as a means of payment and whether the ecosystem needs supporting legislation.
The hearing, titled “Understanding Stablecoins’ Role in Payments and the Need for Legislation,” will be based on the information collected over the last year demanded by the Federal government.
The hearing will focus on the various stablecoins and their use in the payments landscape.
The committee will explore the need for stablecoin legislation depending on their underlying collateral structures.
A draft bill providing a framework for stablecoins in the United States was published on the House of Representatives’ document repository just days before the upcoming hearing.
The list of participants in the hearing includes Circle’s chief strategy officer and head of global policy, Dante Disparte.
Circle’s in-house stablecoin offering, USD Coin (USDC), depegged from the US dollar after the company revealed that Silicon Valley Bank did not process its $3.3 billion withdrawal request.
Following an intense intervention, USDC managed to repeg its value to the dollar.
During this timeline, hackers managed to gain access to Disparte’s Twitter account and started promoting fake loyalty rewards to long-time users of USDC.
The hearing is significant as it will determine the future of stablecoins as a means of payment and their place in the current financial system.
This comes at a time when the crypto ecosystem is gaining traction and stablecoins are becoming a viable option for everyday transactions.
Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that “there is clearly the need for deep, bi-partisan support for laws that ensure that digital dollars on the internet are safely issued, backed, and operated.”
The outcome of the hearing could potentially pave the way for more extensive regulations or even the banning of stablecoins, which could have severe consequences for the crypto industry.