The bill would bar the CFTC from registering a digital commodity platform owned in whole or in part by a Chinese entity, as well as revoke a digital commodity platform's registration if a Chinese entity acquires all or part of the platform.
In his op-ed, Mr. Tuberville references Prometheum Ember Capital, which recently received a first-of-its-kind approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to operate as a special purpose broker-dealer for digital asset securities. This means Prometheum will be able to custody digital asset securities for both retail and institutional investors.
Mr. Tuberville suggests that Prometheum has ties to China through its partnerships with Shanghai Wanxiang Blockchain and HashKey Digital Asset Group, which are referred to as Prometheum's "strategic partners and joint venturers" in a 2019 SEC filing he references.
On Monday, Mr. Tuberville also sent a letter to the SEC and FINRA, writing that Prometheum's ties to such companies "raise serious concerns related to investor protection, data privacy, national security, sanctions compliance and anti-money laundering." He asked the agencies several questions related to how and why they made the decision to approve Prometheum as a broker-dealer for digital asset securities, asking that the agencies respond by June 30.
"Prometheum's approval by the nation's securities regulators is at best a failure of due diligence," Mr. Tuberville writes in his op-ed. "As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I want to ensure similar failures don't occur in our commodities sector."
A spokesman for Prometheum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
