A team of Democratic senators (counting up to five) has rejected Saule Omarova, the nominee suggested by President Biden for heading the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency). The nomination of Omarova to be a regulator of the bank was firstly refuted by Senate Banking Committee’s three members including the senators Kyrsten Sinema, Mark Warner, and Jon Tester, in a call (on phone) with Senator Sherrod Brown (the chairman of the panel), according to Axios’ report. More senators such as Mark Kelly, and John Hickenlooper then further supported the opposition.
Omarova is considered to have anti-crypto feelings with having formerly operated as a Regulatory Policy’s Special Advisor to the undersecretary for Domestic Finance. As a consequence of the opposition launched by all the Republicans and five Democrats, there is a requirement for the rest of the democratic candidates that they should support her appointment by voting.
The senators inquired Omarova concerning her nomination, with John Ossoff (the Senator of Georgia), who asked particular questions regarding cryptocurrency from Omarova, being included in them. The answers given by her pointed out the benefits provided by cryptocurrency for the financial markets, however, her prominent focus was on the point that cryptocurrency undermines the United States dollar.
Following this, two are the potential outcomes. As per one, the administration of Biden may persuade those democratic senators who go against the nomination of Omarova to alter their minds. For the second, the administration may pick another nominee to have senate confirmation. In October, Pat Toomey (a senator) stressed Omarova regarding the absent Marxism thesis thereof, and in the initial phase of November, Michael J. Hsu (the acting Comptroller of the Currency), singled out Binance and Tether being risky players in the field of blockchain.
While discussing the regulatory pressure, Brown’s notice addressed Tether, Centre, Circle, Binance.US, TrustToken, Paxos, Gemini, and Coinbase, who presently need to provide the relevant information till 3rd December. The businesses of cryptocurrency will require giving information regarding the purchasing, minting, and exchange of stablecoins.
In addition to this, the companies are requested to inform about the figure of tokens present in circulation along with the frequency of the consumers in exchanging those tokens against the US dollars. As per the senator, these distinct features as well as the complexity in the matter of stablecoins may not be appreciated by the investors.
