U.S. Congressman Jim Himes: Congress will not pass cryptocurrency legislation anytime soon

Jim Himes, a representative from Connecticut's 4th District, serves as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy and worked at Goldman Sachs investment bank for 12 years.

Himes’ interview came as the U.S. Treasury Department released a proposal that would require businesses to report crypto transactions over $10,000 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Himes said that Congress is not ready to act on crypto legislation in the near future: "Most of my colleagues do not have a deep understanding of cryptocurrencies, what they can do, and what the dangers are. Congress has not spent a lot of time on this. So, for better or worse, legislation in the U.S. Congress is not going to be introduced soon."

“That said, a lot of my colleagues are just beginning to realize this,” he said.

There is also a pro-Bitcoin senator in the U.S. Congress, Cynthia Lummis, who has repeatedly stated that she wants to show her congressional colleagues that Bitcoin has great value. She also plans to convince Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Himes highlighted the atmosphere in Congress surrounding the discussion of cryptocurrency, saying: "The general idea among most of my colleagues is, oh, this is an interesting innovative idea, but what does it (cryptocurrency) do? What problems does it solve? The 'benefits' for drug traffickers, human traffickers and potential terrorists are obvious, tell me what the other benefits are."

The congressman noted that this is a general atmosphere in Congress, where people want to understand the merits of cryptocurrency and what problems it can solve.

Still, Himes stressed: "Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean Congress is going to try to ban it."

He predicted: "There will be a lot of discussions in the coming years about how to regulate, how to tax, and there will be a lot of opportunities for governments to deal with cryptocurrencies."

"In the larger context of, for example, the influx of cryptocurrencies, the Gamestop bubble, Robinhood, SPACs, I can list you 12 things that, in my opinion, are largely not about studying deep fundamental investing, but largely about studying large amounts of liquidity."

“I don’t know if these things have to be regulated,” Himes said. “But to me, growth can’t continue indefinitely, and when we see a bear market or a decline in the price of an asset, what will the negative impact of volatility be? How costly will it be? When that happens, many people will pay a high price.”