The first Digital Assets Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on February 27, focusing on stablecoin regulation and the legislative framework for digital assets, chaired by Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis. "We are at a critical juncture in the final creation of a bipartisan legislative framework for stablecoins and market structures," Lummis said in her opening statement. She sees the bill, introduced with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, as a natural counterpart to the House's 21st Century Financial Innovation and Technology Act. Senate Banking Committee Chairperson Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, confirmed that stablecoins will be at the top of the committee's agenda. Former CFTC Chairperson Timothy Massad has advised lawmakers to prioritize stablecoin regulations and "delay market structure legislation for several years". "The SEC has dropped enforcement cases and established a cryptocurrency task force to address these issues, and we should allow these regulatory initiatives to move forward rather than rush to rewrite securities laws," he noted. Massad warned that existing proposals could "create more confusion than clarity", particularly with regard to defining the attributes of digital assets.