Federal stablecoin, market‑structure and tax work is active; Senate staff says Wyoming positions protected
Loading...
Summary
Chris Land, staff director on Senate digital assets, told the committee negotiators were close on a stablecoin bill and said drafts include protections for Wyoming’s state-sponsored stable token and SPDI charter recognition.
Washington — Staff for the Senate Banking Committee reported May 14 that multiple high‑profile digital‑asset bills were in active negotiation and that Wyoming interests had been addressed in the current stablecoin negotiations.
Chris Land, staff director to the Senate committee working on digital assets, told the Select Committee the Senate stablecoin negotiations were in “the 5‑yard line” but that outcomes remained uncertain. He said the current negotiating text would exempt the State of Wyoming’s stable token from federal stablecoin rules “as not a governmental entity” and would resolve long‑standing regulatory issues facing Wyoming’s special purpose depository institutions (SPDIs), including money‑transmission friction and the recognition of an uninsured bank charter to issue a stablecoin.
Land said negotiators expected to turn next to market‑structure issues and that there was active work on a registration pathway for digital‑asset trading venues (exchanges) under CFTC or another federal framework. On taxation, he said the Senate’s package aimed to include digital‑asset tax relief items — for example, exemptions for mining and staking income and a de minimis transaction exemption that would exclude small gains or losses from reporting — similar to proposals worked in prior Congresses.
Why it matters: committee members focused on whether pending federal bills would require Wyoming to change the statutory structure of its stable token. Land said the current negotiating text would leave Wyoming’s state‑sponsored stable token outside the federal regime’s scope and that the draft included language favorable to Wyoming’s SPDI charter.
Land cautioned that congressional timing was fluid: both House and Senate texts were in motion and could change quickly. “It’s possible that a deal might get announced this week, and it, you know, pass the senate next week,” he said, but he also warned that nothing was certain until votes occurred. Committee members thanked Land for protecting Wyoming’s interests and asked staff to stay in coordination as federal language solidified.
No committee action was required; members asked staff to continue monitoring negotiations and to coordinate with state legal officers and Wyoming’s congressional delegation as federal text was released.
