Watch Kennedy’s comments here. 

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered remarks on the U.S. Senate floor about the future of digital asset market structure legislation in Congress.

Key excerpts of the speech are below: 

“The Senate Banking Committee is in the process, as we should be, of considering market structure legislation for digital assets, for Bitcoin, for crypto. And it’s important because there’s an enormous amount of confusion out there. 

“I remember when blockchain technology started, many of us do. Today, one in five Americans own cryptocurrency. Its growth has been nothing short of breathtaking. But as oftentimes happens when you have an innovation, it creates enormous confusion on the way that the subject of that innovation integrates with the federal government, and that’s the case here.

“Those who are in the cryptocurrency business and in the blockchain technology business don’t know who to talk to in the federal government. The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced, under President Biden, that it has jurisdiction over digital assets, and so did the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the CFTC. And there’s been a lot of litigation, and there have been a lot of court cases, and it’s been enormously confusing.

“Those in the crypto business understandably have the reaction, ‘Look, we don’t mind being regulated. We have nothing to hide, but we’d like to know who to talk to. Is it the CFTC? Is it the SEC? What do we do?’ That’s why we need legislation. That’s why we need market structure legislation. Not because the government needs to stick its nose in everything, but because there has to be some certainty here. Clearly, there’s a turf war between the CFTC and the SEC, and it’s Congress’s role to delineate who has jurisdiction over what.”

. . .

“We need to hold hearings. This is a complicated piece of legislation. I’ve spent a lot of time on it, and it’s one of the most complicated pieces of legislation I’ve ever seen. This is just one person’s opinion as a member of Banking: I think it’s going to take at least two hearings for us to be able to understand the pros and the cons of this legislation and understand the legislation itself.”

. . .

“These are not issues that you raise and solve over a weekend. But I wanted to start talking about this bill, Mr. President, because it’s one of the most important pieces of legislation that this body will consider. It may not be the sexiest, it may not be the most interesting for some, but when one in five Americans own cryptocurrency, it’s certainly important.

“So, I will probably be talking about this issue several more times on this floor, but as the Senate moves forward with our digital assets market structure legislation, I hope we’ll move it quickly, but I hope we’ll move deliberately. I hope we’ll take the time to hold the hearings and, again, I think it’s going to take more than one hearing to address these weighty topics—and then additional time, once we get a bill, to mark it up, as we say, to amend it and make sure that we do the job for the American people.”

Watch Kennedy’s speech here.