Sen. Brown pushes for ‘consistent, comprehensive’ crypto disclosures in letter

Sherrod Brown does not believe that there are clear enough crypto disclosures to protect Americans

article-image

US Senator Sherrod Brown | lev radin/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Senator Sherrod Brown, D-OH, is concerned about the “troubling lack of customer-facing” disclosures in crypto. 

The legislator wrote a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam. 

“I urge you to use existing tools to strengthen transparency and hold bad actors accountable,” he wrote.

Brown hopes that, by addressing the Treasury, CFTC and SEC, the US can “build on our existing disclosure guardrails to effectively target the deficiencies we have observed in digital asset tokens and digital asset platforms.” He’s also requested that the agencies work hand-in-hand with Congress as legislators push crypto-focused legislation forward.

“Some of my colleagues in Congress have proposed merely applying limited disclosure requirements to digital asset tokens. This would be a profound mistake. We cannot water down the high standards that have protected investors and supported businesses for decades,” Brown said.

Brown specifically pushes for “consistent, comprehensive, and accurate disclosures in crypto markets.”

He cites the failures of FTX and Celsius as specific failures, saying that despite the two collapses, “crypto firms have taken no meaningful steps to improve their transparency, leaving customers vulnerable.”

The letter from Brown comes as Congress heads back to Washington to vote on multiple crypto bills. One such bill, the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, has bipartisan support and seeks to establish joint rulemaking powers between the CFTC and the SEC. 

As Blockworks previously reported, it would also clarify how digital assets are classified, specifically stating that an investment contract does not necessarily make a token a security, with the bill’s co-sponsors publishing a fact sheet that pushes for most tokens to be classified as tokens rather than securities.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

kamino cover.jpg

Research

Kamino has solidified its position as the leading money market on Solana and is emerging as a DeFi bluechip. Although DeFi competition is fierce, Kamino has kept iterating on its product to provide the best-in-class UX, paired with a robust risk management framework and battle-tested infrastructure. Given the rollout of Kamino Lend V2, the protocol may scale aggressively over the coming months, penetrating previously untapped markets in Solana DeFi.

article-image

Also in the tokenized fund space, Franklin Templeton launches on Base and Securitize hits $1 billion in tokenized RWA onchain

article-image

It turns out that bitcoin never actually hit an all-time high in March. Thanks a lot, inflation.

article-image

Spire, Citrea and Nillion also announced raises this week

article-image

The latest recipient of an SEC Wells notice is a Web3 gaming company

article-image

Thursday’s selloff was led by tech stocks, triggered by disappointing outlooks from giants Meta and Microsoft

article-image

Historically, positive returns have been a bit more of a toss-up during the year’s 11th month