Crypto’s Wild Ride Leaves Washington Grasping at What to Do (1)

On a day when cryptocurrencies were the talk of Wall Street, Washington showed it has a lot of catching up to do.

As bank regulators testified for hours on Capitol Hill, Bitcoin and other tokens whipsawed between huge losses and then gains. Unsurprisingly, lawmakers asked lots of questions about the asset class of the moment and how the U.S. should police it. Watchdogs mostly said it’s too early to say.

“We are in the process at the Fed of studying the various ways to address this issue,” said Randal Quarles, the Federal Reserve’s Vice Chairman of Supervision. He added ...