Hester Peirce of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has once again urged regulators to take a step back from attempting to overregulate the crypto space. Speaking to Financial Times, Peirce, affectionately dubbed “Crypto Mom” due to her positive stance on cryptocurrencies, argued against the need for strict regulatory policies. According to Peirce, regulators by nature often have a knee-jerk reaction to emerging market spaces, often at the expense of innovation. The SEC commissioner warned that pursuing stricter regulatory policies eliminates the ability of market participants to carry out peer-to-peer transactions. Rather than emphasizing government regulations, Peirce advocates for …

Cryptocurrencies might be anathema for certain members of United States President Joe Biden's administration, but that has not stopped one staffer from owning a small fortune in Bitcoin (BTC). According to a report by Politico on Monday, Tim Wu, special assistant for technology and competition policy to the president at the National Economic Council, owns over $1 million in Bitcoin. Wu’s BTC ownership came to light after a recent personal financial disclosure that also revealed his ownership of Filecoin (FIL). Wu reportedly owns between $1 million and $5 million worth of Bitcoin as well as between $100,001 and $250,000 worth …

United States President Joe Biden will speak directly about cryptocurrency and its role in the attack on the Colonial Pipeline and other ransomware breaches, according to Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. In a White House press briefing on Monday, Sullivan said U.S. officials, seemingly including Biden, would like to see an action plan regarding ransomware attacks during the president’s visit to the G-7 summit this weekend. The national security adviser said this plan should address the resilience of such attacks, how to share information with other democracies and “how to deal with the cryptocurrency challenge.” Sullivan said crypto “lies …

At the bustling Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Congressman Warren Davidson, alongside United States Senator Cynthia Lummis, sat down to field interview questions. The interview took a turn toward privacy, with Davidson responding with comments on crypto wallets. “At the end of the year, if you think about it, Secretary Mnuchin was talking about banning private wallets,” Davidson said, responding to a question about the possibility of over-regulation in crypto. “That’s a horrible approach,” he added. “If we don’t protect private wallets, someone is going to try to ban them.” As Davidson mentioned, December 2020 saw the U.S. Treasury suggest …

Former presidential candidate and congressman Ron Paul has renewed calls for Bitcoin to be legalized as money and not taxed. Paul is a staunch libertarian and author of the Bitcoiner favorite “End the Fed,” who has advocated for the legalization of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the past. The former congressman has also regularly taken aim against the Federal Reserve for its unchecked money printing since the pandemic began. Ahead of his appearance at the Miami Bitcoin conference on June 3, the 85 year-old spoke with streaming financial news provider Kitco News and noted that his goal is to “help …

Powers On... is a monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who spent much of his 40-year legal career working with complex securities-related cases in the United States after a stint with the SEC. He is now an adjunct professor at Florida International University College of Law, where he teaches a course on “Blockchain, Crypto and Regulatory Considerations.” These past few weeks have been tumultuous, especially for newbies to the crypto market. First, on May 8, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, was the host of Saturday Night Live where he promoted Dogecoin (DOGE) — a highly speculative, volatile cryptocurrency with present …

The Fed’s governor has argued that The United States must be at the forefront of developing a central bank-issued digital currency, or CBDC, to bolster the role of the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency. In a May 24 announcement, Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard asserted that leading CBDC projects could have a “significant effect” on the global financial system, urging the U.S. to ensure it plays a leading role in the burgeoning CBDC ecosystem: “Given the potential for CBDCs to gain prominence in cross-border payments and the reserve currency role of the dollar, it is vital for the …

Billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller has forecast the possibility of a crypto-derived ledger system overtaking the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency. The hedge fund boss noted that if there were to be a U.S. dollar replacement it “would be some kind of ledger system invented by some kids from MIT or Stanford or some other engineering school that hasn't even happened yet, that can replace the dollar worldwide.” He made the comments in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box. Druckenmiller noted that crypto is often promoted as a hedge against inflation, which has become more relevant of …

The United States House of Representatives on Tuesday passed H.R. 1602 — the Eliminate Barriers to Innovation Act — introduced by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC). H.R. 1602 was among six bipartisan financial services-related bills passed by the House on Tuesday, with the McHenry-sponsored legislation focusing on regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies. Introduced back in March, the bill seeks to clarify the roles of agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the policing of cryptocurrencies in the United States. The bill also seeks to answer the ongoing debate of whether crypto tokens are securities or …

Voting mostly along party lines, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Gary Gensler to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. In a vote of 53-45 today, the Senate members confirmed the former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. Gensler, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, volunteered to join then President-elect Joe Biden’s team as a financial expert in November. Biden announced the former CFTC was his pick to chair the SEC shortly before his inauguration in January. During his confirmation hearings with the Senate …

The United States Postal Service will soon be stepping into the nonfungible token market. Not to release artwork or music, but rather to help customers purchase postage. In an announcement on Tuesday, communications-as-a-service platform CaseMail said the USPS had certified its postage nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, for use in the United States. The tokens are digitally stamped on the USPS’ ePostage labels and the physical item being mailed, creating a verifiable chain of custody for digital and physical assets, as all data is recorded on the blockchain. "Using NFTs to help protect a process that's both familiar and important to …

David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, has forecast a “big evolution” in how the United States government regulates Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in relation to financial institutions. In an interview with CNBC today, Solomon was quizzed on the banking giant’s moves to adopt Bitcoin (BTC). The CEO kept his cards close to his chest but conveyed that the bank is keeping a close eye on digital currencies amid increasing demand for crypto exposure from its clients: “We continue to think about digital currency and the digitization of money in a very proactive way, and in that context, we are engaged …