Robinhood's chief legal officer says 'it's a stretch' to believe crypto legislation is coming anytime soon

• Robinhood's chief legal officer said crypto legislation wasn't likely anytime soon.
• He said the congressional hearing Wednesday would be more informative for the SEC.

Robinhood's chief legal officer said new legislation directed at the cryptocurrency market likely wasn't on the horizon.

In a Wednesday interview with CNBC, Robinhood's Daniel Gallagher said given the dynamic in Congress, "it's a stretch to believe that there will be legislation coming out on crypto anytime soon."

Gallagher made the comments ahead of a congressional crypto hearing in which six executives from firms including FTX and Coinbase were set to testify in front of the House Financial Services Committee to help legislators understand "the challenges and benefits" of the sector.

"These conversations are, theoretically, existential to crypto, but one would have to assume that Congress is actually going to act and legislate," he told CNBC. Robinhood offers seven cryptocurrencies for trading, including bitcoin and ethereum.

Gallagher said the hearing would likely be more informative for Gary Gensler, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission who has been looking to enhance regulation in the world of digital assets. Gallagher said he hoped regulation would be "rational" and not "quash innovation" or "get rid of investor choice."

Gensler has been zeroing in on crypto regulation as trading platforms and the market broadly have boomed. He previously told the Financial Times that the crypto market was "at the level and the nature that if it's going to have any relevance five and 10 years from now, it's going to be within a public-policy framework."

The cryptocurrency market has boomed this year, hitting a $3 trillion market capitalization for the first time — that's about the size of the entire UK economy, Insider reported previously. Bitcoin, for its part, hit a record high of about $69,000 last month but has since slid. It traded around $50,000 on Wednesday.