Circle exec to join US Congressional committee hearing on stablecoin payments, legislation

The Financial Services Committee issued a memorandum to announce an upcoming hearing titled “Understanding Stablecoins’ Role in Payments and the Need for Legislation.”

The United States House Committee on Financial Services a.k.a the Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on April 19 to discuss stablecoins’ position as a means of payment and whether or not the ecosystem needs supporting legislation.

The Financial Services Committee issued a memorandum to announce an upcoming hearing titled “Understanding Stablecoins’ Role in Payments and the Need for Legislation.” The hearing will be based on the information collected over the last year demanded by the Federal government.

The above list shows the participants who will be testifying at the hearing, which includes Circle’s chief strategy officer and head of global policy, Dante Disparte. Last month, on March 11, Circle’s in-house stablecoin offering, USD Coin (USDC), depegged from the US dollar after the company revealed that Silicon Valley Bank did not process its $3.3 billion withdrawal request.

2/ Like other customers and depositors who relied on SVB for banking services, Circle joins calls for continuity of this important bank in the U.S. economy and will follow guidance provided by state and Federal regulators.

— Circle (@circle) March 11, 2023

However, following an intense intervention, USDC managed to repeg its value to the dollar. During this timeline, hackers managed to gain access to Disparte’s Twitter account and started promoting fake loyalty rewards to long-time users of USDC.

The upcoming Financial Services Committee hearing will focus on the various stablecoins and their use in the payments landscape. Moreover, the committee will explore the need for stablecoin legislation depending on their underlying collateral structures.

Related: Circle and BlockFi questioned on banking with SVB by Warren and AOC

Just days before the upcoming hearing, a draft bill providing a framework for stablecoins in the United States was published on the House of Representatives’ document repository.

Speaking about the draft bill, Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire said that “there is clearly the need for deep, bi-partisan support for laws that ensure that digital dollars on the internet are safely issued, backed and operated.”

As Cointelegraph reported, the draft further allows the U.S. government to establish standards for interoperability between stablecoins.

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