NEWS: Congressman Greg Casar Introduces Amendment to Boost Consumer Protections for Crypto

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) introduced an amendment to H.R.4763, the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century (FIT) Act, to ensure that Americans who choose to invest in cryptocurrency have reasonable consumer protections. Casar’s amendment would ensure that Americans who invest in crypto have similar — rather than fewer — protections as those Americans who invest in traditional finance.

Currently, the FIT Act would exempt up to $75 million in digital asset crowdfunding from registration with regulatory agencies, while Casar’s proposed amendment would lower the exemption cap to the current financial standard of $5 million. As Americans navigate this already volatile industry, Congress must ensure that our regulatory regime does not lead to deregulation and even fewer protections for Americans.

Remarks as Delivered
“From 2017 to 2022, Americans who invested in the SSP Index, received about a 61% return on their investment. But Americans who invested in the top 12 crypto currencies that existed during that five-year period, did not make money. On the other hand, on average they lost about half of their money. Three out of every four bitcoin traders during that time period also lost money. From FTX to Celsius to Blockchain ATMs, the industry has repeatedly lost everyday Americans their money. 

“So whether you're a crypto booster or a crypto skeptic, we can all agree, based on the facts, that crypto investment is a risk. 

“And since it is a risk, we should want more oversight to protect Americans. But this bill before us today doesn’t provide us more regulation, it doesn’t even provide many Americans the same level of regulation as traditional finance. Instead, it creates a light-touch regulatory regime that can be manipulated by bad actors in both crypto and traditional finance, putting Americans and our 90-year securities laws at risk. 

“My amendment focuses on one key area where the everyday people who invest in crypto, under this bill, will, in fact, receive less protection than Americans invested in traditional finance. The current flawed bill before us creates a crowdfunding registration exemption for crypto that is 15 times weaker than the crowdfunding exemption that exists in traditional finance. In the existing bill before us, someone could crowdfund up to $75 million from everyday Americans, and those Americans would receive just the most minimal of protections. We would never allow that in the non-crypto finance world.

“So my amendment changes the exemption cap to $5 million, putting the cap in line with our current laws. So, at the very least, Americans making investments in crypto can get the same level of protection as crowdfunding investors in traditional finance. I hope that whether you are for the underlying bill, or against the underlying bill like me, we can agree this common-sense amendment will help protect everyday people. And I urge everyone to support it.”

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Congressman Greg Casar represents Texas’s 35th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which runs down I-35 from East Austin to Hays County to the West Side of San Antonio.  A labor organizer and son of Mexican immigrants, Casar serves as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 118th Congress. He also serves on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Agriculture.