Stablecoin regulation was front and center at a Congressional hearing on crypto Wednesday that was surprisingly cordial -- likely due to the absence of a key and controversial industry player.
The House Financial Services Committee hearing featured executives from exchanges FTX and Coinbase Global Inc., as well as stablecoin issuers Circle and Paxos, all of whom largely agreed with lawmakers that greater regulation of crypto is needed. The cordial tone was in sharp contrast to the combative hearing two years ago, when Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by the same committee over his company’s plan for a slew of stablecoins via a project called Libra. Under regulatory and congressional pressure, Libra -- later renamed Diem -- has dramatically scaled back its ambitions.
