United States President Joe Biden has vetoed a Congressional resolution that would have repealed the controversial cryptocurrency accounting guidelines known as SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 121. This decision has drawn sharp criticism from pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis, who accused the administration of missing an opportunity to correct its stance on crypto assets.
“Congress gave the administration the opportunity to correct its position on crypto assets,” Lummis stated on X, following Biden’s veto. She argued that the President’s intervention contradicts the “will of the American people” and pledged to continue advocating for financial innovation and protection of crypto assets.
SAB 121 mandates that companies holding customers’ crypto assets in custody must record them as a liability on their balance sheets, coupled with a corresponding asset requirement, which is seen as a deterrent for publicly reporting banks. Lummis had sent a letter to Biden hours before his veto, urging him not to reject the Congressional repeal.
In her letter, Lummis criticized the SEC for bypassing the full commission vote by issuing guidance instead of engaging in notice-and-comment rulemaking. Despite both the House of Representatives and Senate voting to overrule the guidelines, Biden’s veto has heightened tensions in the ongoing debate over cryptocurrency regulation.
