... Several Democrats on the committee used the opportunity to express their deep skepticism of cryptocurrencies in general. Rep. Brad Sherman of California took issue with the OCC’s decision in January to grant the San-Francisco based Anchorage Digital Bank conditional approval to become the first federally chartered crypto bank, which seeks to provide custodial services for institutions that invest in crypto assets.
“I’ve looked at bitcoin and wondered if there’s a big enough market among terrorists, drug dealers and it didn’t seem to be enough and then I realized…there was $1 trillion per year in unreported taxes, mostly for the wealthy,” Sherman said. “Bitcoin, it’s not just for narco-terrorists anymore, it’s for tax evaders too. That’s the market for bitcoin,” he charged, suggesting there was no true market for crypto custodial services, unless as a facilitator for illegal activity.
Rep. Al Green of Texas, meanwhile, argued that the breathtaking rise in the price of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin BTCUSD, 0.12% has lead to his constituents having “consternation about digital currency, cryptocurrency, because they’re concerned it might end up as a Ponzi scheme,” given its lack of widespread use for making actual day-to-day purchases, the Democrat said.
Brooks argued forcefully against these characterizations of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that underlies them. “We’re building a second internet here,” he said, adding that the point of most crypto tokens is to give people a reward for lending their computing power to a decentralized network for powering online applications.
read more (marketwatch)
“I’ve looked at bitcoin and wondered if there’s a big enough market among terrorists, drug dealers and it didn’t seem to be enough and then I realized…there was $1 trillion per year in unreported taxes, mostly for the wealthy,” Sherman said. “Bitcoin, it’s not just for narco-terrorists anymore, it’s for tax evaders too. That’s the market for bitcoin,” he charged, suggesting there was no true market for crypto custodial services, unless as a facilitator for illegal activity.
Rep. Al Green of Texas, meanwhile, argued that the breathtaking rise in the price of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin BTCUSD, 0.12% has lead to his constituents having “consternation about digital currency, cryptocurrency, because they’re concerned it might end up as a Ponzi scheme,” given its lack of widespread use for making actual day-to-day purchases, the Democrat said.
Brooks argued forcefully against these characterizations of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that underlies them. “We’re building a second internet here,” he said, adding that the point of most crypto tokens is to give people a reward for lending their computing power to a decentralized network for powering online applications.
read more (marketwatch)
