Chanel Rion — OAN Chief White House Correspondent
UPDATED 8:40 AM PT – Monday, September 19, 2022
Despite a bleak week for the Biden economy the White House plowed forward to alienate those in the Wild West of crypto currencies.
As Wall Street continues to buckle under the weight of persistent Biden spending policy, the White House announced more bad news, Friday introducing a sweeping wish list for how it wants to regulate Cryptocurrencies. The first framework of its kind, crypto advocates panned the Biden’s framework as one that fundamentally misunderstood the very nature of cryptocurrency.
Biden’s new cryptocurrency regulation framework comes six months after he signed an Executive Order calling on federal agencies to devise recommendations on regulating the financial Wild West of Cryptocurrencies.
Recommendations include ways to crack down on fraud and making cryptocurrency transactions easier and more accessible. According to the Federal Trade Commission, crypto fraud in the US neared $1 Billion since 2021.
The Biden recommendation taps into existing regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
But the Crypto world is outraged. Upon release of the policy framework from the White House, Crypto analysts and proponents erupted on Social Media – their criticisms grounded largely in the antagonistic spirit of the White House’s approach. That the Biden Administration is treating the Crypto world as the villain and enemy in the financial space in need of a crackdown.
The worst thing about the new regulation is the White House had a chance to allow crypto to thrive with oversight and create a brand new sector for job creation and tax revenue
They want you to fail and will stop at nothing to achieve it
The American Dream is d3ad https://t.co/P8n8DjnFfu
— WendyO.eth✨ (@CryptoWendyO) September 16, 2022
Indeed, the Wall Street Journal reports Biden’s Department of Justice is set to establish a Crypto Crime Unit.
Blockchain Association President Kristin Smith issued a statement in response citing Biden’s framework as less than helpful and fundamentally misguided:
“While intended to be part of a broader government and stakeholder effort to bring better regulation to crypto assets, these reports focus on risks – not opportunities – and omit substantive recommendations on how the United States can promote its burgeoning crypto industry.”
Substantive recommendations that would position the government as a beneficiary of the Crypto world rather than its adversary. Smith argues the Biden White House missed an opportunity to embrace crypto as an emerging new financial sector and in its short-sided positioning, is dismissing the possibility of new jobs and tax revenue.
Another major warning sign out of Biden’s framework is the White House’s lean toward establishing an official US digital currency (CBDC). A move many in the crypto space argues, obviates the very nature of having an untraceable, government free currency.
Critics of an official US Digital Currency warn the creep toward digitizing the US dollar is a gateway for population control – where citizens and daily actions from energy use to exercising their 2nd Amendment could be monitored and in turn, controlled by big government.
A path upon which America is headed should Biden’s regulation wish list and a centralized digital currency become reality.