Crypto’s Future Will Be Sabotaged by Feeble Oversight: Editorial

Bitcoin and other digital tokens, once touted as the uncontrolled and decentralized future of money, have proved to be lucrative tools for fraudsters, terrorists and rogue regimes. In response, Congress is now attempting to create an effective legal framework that will enable promising innovations to flourish while curtailing bad behavior.

It’s the right goal. Unfortunately, this effort is likely doomed unless federal market regulators are empowered and equipped to do the job well.

Last year, Congress passed a law called the Genius Act, which aims to govern so-called stablecoins, or digital tokens that mimic dollars. The risk of such instruments ...