By Hannah Lang

(Reuters). Despite the absence of new legislative legislation, U.S. regulators could largely use current laws to regulate digital assets like cryptocurrencies without requiring additional congressional legislation.

The report by the Center for American Progress could be used to help agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to guide their decisions about how to regulate cryptocurrencies.

The regulators have yet to decide how to regulate cryptocurrency, particularly “stablecoins”, whose creators claim they have compared their value to that of the dollar or other fiat currencies. In a last-year report, the U.S. Treasury Department raised this issue with Congress.

Progressives are worried about the systemic risks and protection of investors.

The think tank said it would be helpful for Congress to address gaps within the current regulatory framework — such as creating rules for crypto commodities. However, it cautioned that the creation of a separate regulatory framework for crypto would inadvertently reduce supervision and lead to regulatory arbitrage.

“For crypto securities, we already have an existing structure in place, and that structure needs to be enforced. We don’t need to recreate the wheel,” said Todd Phillips, director of financial regulation and corporate governance at CAP, who co-authored the paper with Alexandra Thornton, its senior director of tax policy.

CAP maps out a variety of steps agencies can take in accordance with their existing mandates. One example is that the SEC might regulate clearing agencies for crypto wallets, and the CFTC may require information about assets supporting stablecoins.

According to the report, banks could issue their own stablecoins with no congressional approval if they are backed up by dollars reserves.