A new crypto currency bill has been filed in the house (https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/digital_002_xml.pdf). 162-page draft bill, unveiled by House financial services committee chair Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina, and House agriculture committee chair Glenn Thompson, a Republican from Pennsylvania, is an attempt to kickstart discussions between Republicans and Democrats on the two committees.

The new U.S. crypto bill proposes cryptocurrencies offered as part of an investment contract would fall under SEC oversight, while those that qualify as commodities would be overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Whether cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ethereum, Binance's BNB or Ripple's XRP are defined as securities or commodities would depend on how decentralized their underlying blockchain is, decided by an SEC ruling.

The bill "lays a strong foundation for regulatory jurisdiction and definitions," Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer at bitcoin and crypto exchange Coinbase, posted to Twitter. "A comprehensive bill of this magnitude warrants an in-depth review, which we’ll be conducting over the coming days, but what we’re seeing so far is encouraging."

"It’s a win this year for crypto to even get some attention in DC right now, after last year's setbacks," Ryan Selkis, founder at crypto data company Messari, posted to Twitter, adding: "There is still a lot of work to do to get to a viable piece of legislation, but this is a good starting point for a sensible market structure bill."