Skybridge Capital Applies For Cryptocurrency ETF And Accumulates $100 Million For ALGO Fund

A statement from Anthony Scaramucci has revealed the total crypto worth of an Alternative investment firm in Australia’s SkyBridge Capital. He stated that SkyBridge holds crypto worth $700 million presently.

The alternative investment firm has filed for a cryptocurrency company ETF which simply means a crypto-based exchange-traded fund.

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They did this on Tuesday, aiming to increase their digital currency offerings. SkyBridge Capital also revealed its plans for the Algorand fund during the SALT conference held within the week in New York.

SkyBridge Crypto Assets Worth

SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci while addressing CNBC, stated that the firm raised over $100 million for the new Algorand fund. Anthony was also the former Director of White House Communications. It was Scaramucci who valued the company’s crypto-assets to be about $700 million.

The CEO reaffirmed that crypto has come to stay. However, he added that if regulations plan to fan the increasing adoption of digital asset technology, they should take quick action.

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Anthony explained the crypto adoption as similar to Uber, which the regulators planned to knock out of the system. But the people later won because they accepted its use. He predicts that the United States will start recording up to 200 million crypto users in no distant time.

The SkyBridge CEO made these comments when spectators were concerned about having a regulatory crackdown maned by SEC.

Gary Gensler, the head of SEC, had characterized the crypto sector as rife associated with abuse and fraud. But Anthony Scaramucci, despite his disagreement, appreciated Gary for his stake in crypto.

He explained that Gary had many people that are yet to understand crypto in Congress fully. As a result, they have a lot of negativity, and he will call on elites like Elizabeth Warren to attend such a conference.

However, sitting with members of the industry will make her understand the protocols better. Anthony suggests that the need to carry everyone alone by educating them.

Other Finance Magnates Opinion

Other finance lords in their speech didn’t share Anthony’s optimism. Instead, they doubted the possibility of crypto adoption outrunning the grip of strong-handed regulations.

Related Reading | While Broader Crypto Market Holds Its Collective Breath, Whales Are Loading Up On Bitcoin

Ray Dalio predicted that as the digital assets popularity increases, it would attract the attention of lawmakers.

Skybridge Capital Applies For Cryptocurrency ETF And Accumulates $100 Million For ALGO Fund

Skybridge Capital Applies For Cryptocurrency ETF And Accumulates $100 Million For ALGO Fund


ALGO is currently down by 4% at the time of writing | Source: ALGOUSD on TradingView.com

However, while speaking to CNBC, he said that even if the crypto adoption successfully increases, the lawmakers will kill it. He believed that lawmakers would succeed in killing it as they have their ways of doing so.

Dalio explained that every monetary asset that offers a cash alternative is worth considering, including Bitcoin.

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Gary Gensler Talks Coinbase, Stablecoins With Senate

Key Takeaways

  • Gary Gensler of the SEC attended a Senate hearing on cryptocurrency and exchange regulation today.
  • Senator Elizabeth Warren asked Gensler about the difficulty of withdrawing crypto during exchange outages.
  • Senator Pat Toomey asked Gensler about the SEC’s unclear stance on whether stablecoins are considered securities.




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Gary Gensler, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, attended a Senate hearing today in which he discussed his agency’s stance on cryptocurrency and crypto exchanges.

Coinbase, DeFi Have Withdrawal Risks

During the hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren asked Gensler about the difficulty of withdrawing cryptocurrency investments in the event of a market crash and cryptocurrency exchange outages.

“Is there anything I could do to get my money out?” Warren asked, using the crypto exchange Coinbase as an example of an exchange that went down during last week’s market crash and outage.

In response, Gensler said that government agencies could do little to help investors because Coinbase had not registered with the SEC. He also implied that it was Coinbase’s responsibility to do so due to the fact that it “may be trading dozens of securities.”


Warren went on to discuss the risks of Ethereum’s high transaction fees, which could make it difficult for users to redeem investments made on DeFi exchanges. “High, unpredictable fees can make crypto trading really dangerous for traders that aren’t rich,” she noted.

She suggested that it is up to agencies like the SEC to regulate those situations, a statement that Gensler concurred with.

Gensler Says Stablecoins May Be Securities

Earlier in the hearing, Senator Pat Toomey criticized the SEC’s unclear handling of stablecoins as securities. Toomey argued that dollar-pegged stablecoins do not seem to fit the definition of securities because they don’t carry the promise of returns.

Earlier this month, the SEC threatened to sue Coinbase over its lending plan, which promised 4% annual interest to users who deposited the USDC stablecoin with the exchange.

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Though the conversation did not specifically reference Coinbase and its stablecoin plan, Toomey seemed to allude to that case in particular. “We certainly shouldn’t be taking enforcement action against someone without first providing that clarity,” Toomey said.

Gensler maintained that the laws around securities are currently very broad and that stablecoins “may well be securities.” He did not comment on the SEC’s negotiations with Coinbase.

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this author held less than $75 of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins.

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Why Progressives Should Love Bitcoin: An Open Letter To Senator Elizabeth Warren

Dear Senator Warren,

I am a fan. I think you are very smart, and you genuinely care about building a more equitable society.

But respectfully, when you talk about Bitcoin, you sound silly.

Bitcoin is not powered by a “shadowy faceless group of super coders.” It is not a “scam,” it is not “bogus digital private money,” it is not “highly opaque,” and it is not built to “assist criminals.”

Rather, Bitcoin is the most democratized form of money ever created. Nobody owns or controls Bitcoin, and everyone can take part.

Bitcoin is a monetary instrument that does not require trust in governments to not inflate away the value of money or trust in banks to stay solvent. Bitcoin was founded in 2008, amidst the global financial crisis, by a person or persons under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. The creation of Bitcoin was a noble endeavor. Satoshi is among the richest people in the world, and yet, Satoshi’s bitcoin remains untouched (and unspent). We know this because Bitcoin runs on an open-source blockchain. Every transaction is recorded on a public, transparent, decentralized ledger.

Bitcoin adoption, as measured by the number of people who own bitcoin, is growing faster than internet adoption. However, the commercialization of the internet was the ultimate insider’s game. Rich white men, venture capitalists and favored institutional investors got in early. By contrast, since its birth, Bitcoin has been available to anyone with a cellphone.

Eleven years ago, the cryptocurrency market did not exist. Today, the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market exceeds $2 trillion. This incredible wealth creation has benefited individuals, not institutions, particularly the unbanked and disenfranchised. It is a beautiful progressive story.

Your voters own bitcoin. A recent Harris Poll survey found that 30% of black and 27% of Hispanic investors in the United States own cryptocurrency, compared to 17% of white investors. The same survey found that most black and Hispanic Americans consider Bitcoin’s decentralization to be a positive attribute. Is it any surprise that people who have been most oppressed by the State find appeal in a stateless money? Your voters are rejecting the legacy financial system because it fosters economic and racial injustice and perpetuates wealth inequality.

Throughout the globe, most people have suffered through currency collapses. As an example, Argentina, Brazil, China, Mexico, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Indonesia, South Africa and Lebanon have had one or more currency debasement cycles over the last four decades. Incompetent and corrupt monetary policies steal the fruits of people’s hard work, or “life energy.”

By contrast, Bitcoin has a fixed and predetermined monetary policy. Trusting Bitcoin means trusting math, and billions of people are embracing Bitcoin for this very reason. Bitcoin represents a monetary life raft to the world’s inhabitants.

Nigeria offers a great case study of Bitcoin’s promise and utility. Political repression, currency controls and rampant inflation have turned Nigerians into “minimum-wage slaves.” Because of hyperinflation, they must spend their paltry wages today or risk losing their purchasing power. Time preference is a luxury they do not have.

As the Nigerian naira plummets in value, Bitcoin has become a necessity. Thirty-two percent of Nigerians own bitcoin, the highest percentage in the world. Furthermore, remittances into Nigeria exceeded $17 billion in 2020, and a substantial proportion of this value is conveyed in bitcoin. Lastly, Nigeria has one of the youngest populations in the world, and, on a globe basis, this progressive cohort increasingly embraces Bitcoin.

To quote NYDIG Executive Chairman Ross Stevens, “Bitcoin is hope.” It is hope for your voters. It is hope for people all over the world. Bitcoin’s decentralized, transparent, democratic network will inevitably replace the failed, corrupt partnership between governments and large banks.

Importantly, Bitcoin’s decentralization is not — as you say — a “fantastical narrative,” with miners and corporations flaunting “false moral superiority” when they are, like banks, “the true power brokers.” Senator: Facts are a stubborn thing. Let me show you the folly of your words.

The Bitcoin fork wars of 2016 to 2017 bitterly divided the Bitcoin community into “big blockers” and “small blockers.” The former wanted to increase the block size to increase transaction throughput. The latter opposed the change as it would have made the Bitcoin network less decentralized. Corporate interests, including Coinbase, Digital Currency Group, Xapo, BitGo and the largest Bitcoin miners, joined forces to fight for larger blocks. The small blockers, a collective of “mom and pop” holders of bitcoin, resisted this top-down change and defended the existing decentralization. A virtual civil war ensued. The people won. The establishment lost. Most importantly, progressive ideas prevailed.

Digital money is here. We have two choices. First, a technology-based money like the Chinese digital yuan where the state has absolute power, and citizens have zero privacy. A system, I might add, where hard-earned savings can be zapped out of bank accounts at the government’s whim. The second option is a decentralized stateless global currency — bitcoin — with which anyone with a cellphone is sovereign over their money. This option offers rules without rulers and financial freedom for all.

Like you, I am a progressive. I believe in smart regulation regarding investor protection, anti-money laundering and tax collection. Let’s regulate Bitcoin through the prism of wanting it to succeed.

Sadly, your misguided position on Bitcoin hurts the people you tirelessly fight for. I am comforted by the fact that you cannot stop Bitcoin’s rise. However, you might be able to slow adoption. If you succeed, who benefits? I will tell you. The winners will be the biggest banks in the world. They are terrified of Bitcoin, as evidenced by Jamie Dimon’s recent annual shareholder letter. Senator Warren, do you really want to do Mr. Dimon’s bidding? Because you sounded like a JPMorgan lobbyist at the recent Senate Banking Committee hearing.

I love Bitcoin. If you truly understood Bitcoin, you would love it too. To that end, I have included below a recommended syllabus of insightful Bitcoin content.

Bitcoin offers equal access which will inevitably foster more equal outcomes. Bitcoin will make the world a better place. What’s more progressive than that?

All the best,

Samantha Messing

B.A. With Honors, Political Science, Brown University, 2021

Member, Brown Women’s Varsity Soccer

Recipient of the Alan Zuckerman Award for “Build It, And She Will Soar: Title IX And Athletics As A Road To Social Equity”

Syllabus

This is a guest post by Samantha Messing. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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SEC’s Gensler Tells Warren Regulators Need “Plenary Authority” Over Crypto

Key Takeaways

  • SEC chair Gary Gensler wrote to Senator Elizabeth Warren to say that he thinks regulators need more power over crypto.
  • He says that investors using both centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges are not adequately protected.
  • According to the chairman, stablecoins may be used to sidestep anti-money laundering, tax compliance, and sanction provisions.


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SEC chair Gary Gensler believes lawmakers should focus on crypto trading, lending, and DeFi platforms.

Gensler Seeks More Regulatory Oversight

SEC chair Gary Gensler told Senator Elizabeth Warren regulators should have “plenary” or complete and absolute authority to regulate the crypto market.

On Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, who’s recently been outspoken about the need to regulate the crypto industry, released a letter SEC chair Gary Gensler wrote in response to her inquiry about the agency’s power to regulate the industry.

“Right now, I believe investors using these platforms are not adequately protected,” Gensler said in the response, pointing to centralized and decentralized exchanges. He added that “the probability is quite remote” that any given crypto exchange operating today has zero securities listed and affirmed that the SEC has and will continue to take their authorities as far as they go, boasting they “haven’t lost a case yet.”


Gensler further expressed concerns to Warren about the growing use of stablecoins on crypto exchanges. He wrote: 

“The use of stablecoins on these platforms may facilitate those seeking to sidestep a host of public policy goals connected to our traditional banking and financial system: anti-money laundering, tax compliance, sanctions, and the like.”

Speaking to the American Bar Association in July, Gensler warned that all digital assets, including stablecoins, may fall under the SEC’s jurisdiction if they are backed by securities. The regulator’s comments are especially concerning considering both Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC stablecoins are, in part, backed by money market funds, bonds, and commercial paper—assets currently considered securities under U.S. law.

While the SEC is yet to go against stablecoin issuers for potentially violating securities regulations if the agency ever manages to convince the courts that stablecoins are indeed securities, that could spell trouble for the entire DeFi sector. In that case, according to Gensler, decentralized exchanges and lending protocols could also fall under the purview of the SEC. “To the extent that there are securities on these trading platforms, under our laws they have to register with the Commission unless they meet an exemption,” he wrote. “If a lending platform is offering securities, it also falls into SEC jurisdiction.”

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Perhaps the most important statement in Gensler’s letter was a call to Congress to give regulators more resources and complete and absolute authority to regulate the crypto markets. He wrote: 

“In my view, the legislative priority should center on crypto trading, lending, and DeFi platforms. Regulators would benefit from additional plenary authority to write rules for and attach guardrails to crypto trading and lending […] We also need more resources to protect investors in this growing and volatile sector.“

In a Wednesday statement, Senator Warren, who recently likened cryptocurrencies to drugs and snake oil, expressed satisfaction with Gensler’s response, saying “I’m glad SEC Chair Gensler agrees and has directed the SEC to use its full authority to address these risks, and that he has also identified where additional regulatory authority may need to be granted by Congress.”

It remains to be seen whether Congress will respond to Gensler’s call to action.

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Commercial Paper Reserves Of Tether Under Heavy Regulatory Scrutiny

Tether has been facing a lot of pressure from regulatory authorities. Now, the attention of the watchdogs has shifted to its commercial paper reserve. As a result, this week has been very hot for the company. The regulators focus their attention on what makes up the Tether reserves.

Related Reading | Cardano Aims To Facilitate Users With Smart Contracts

A report disclosed that Tether’s Michael Hsu said that the US regulators focus their attention on the paper to know if every Tether Token is actually backed by $1 as the company claims.

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US Regulators Scrutinize Tether

From what we learned, the regulators investigating Tether are led by Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary. Before now, Yellen has held some meetings about the possible risks of stablecoins.

Now, the ” President’s Working Group on Financial Market” aims to know if Tether really holds large amounts of commercial papers as it claims. Commercial papers usually represent debt instruments that companies issue to investors for short-term funds.

However, the Working Group does not believe the claims as it compares it to a mutual fund that can lose its investors in one day. Presently, the total USDT in circulation is 62 billion. So, there seems to be a legitimate cause for alarm.

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Commercial Paper Reserves Of Tether Under Heavy Regulator Scrutiny

Commercial Paper Reserves Of Tether Under Heavy Regulator Scrutiny


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Last two months, Tether had revealed the composition of its total reserves. According to the stablecoin, it had more instruments that were not just cash or cash equivalents, such as bonds, secured loans, bitcoin, and a larger portion comprising of commercial papers.

Related Reading | Tether To Conduct An Audit To Negate Claims Concerning Transparency

While talking with sources, Stuart Hoegner, the Tether general counsel, revealed that the company is planning a thorough audit in some months to come. Let’s recall that Tether hasn’t carried out such audits before now, and the announcement helped a lot of investors to breathe easier.

However, on July 19, Yellen was heard asking lawmakers to establish rules that will guide stablecoins in the financial market.

More Calls on Crypto regulations

After calling for regulations on stablecoins, Yellen received a letter nine days later from Senator Elizabeth Warren asking her to push for greater regulation for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.

During a hearing of the “Senate Banking Committee,” Warren also stated her negative position about the crypto industry. According to her, it was better to hand over the financial systems to giants banks than some nameless and faceless, shadowy miners and super-coders.

Related Reading | Anthony Di Lorio To Leave Cryptocurrency Space For Philanthropic Initiatives

However, during the hearing, an Anderson Kill Law partner, Preston Byrne, stated that the most frightening of all is that Elizabeth Warren is in control of the financial system. Elizabeth is a democrat who has been serving as a United States Senator since 2013.

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Warren Likens Crypto to Drugs, Snake Oil in Latest Tirade

Key Takeaways

  • Senator Warren believes the current state of play in crypto recalls the early years of the pharmaceutical industry before the FDA stepped in.
  • Warren, also a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, thinks the cryptocurrency industry should be regulated now.
  • She also suggested that crypto miners and developers could control the system.


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Senator Warren expressed concern for retail investors facing financial losses and becoming “completely wiped out” in a Wednesday Squawk Box interview. 

Warren Decries Crypto Industry 

Senator Warren has criticized the cryptocurrency space yet again. 

In a Wednesday interview for CNBC, Warren—likely the most vocal proponent for an urgent, coordinated, and holistic policy response to the risks posed by crypto assets in the U.S. Senate—likened the current state of affairs in crypto to the unregulated days of the pharmaceuticals industry, when anyone could manufacture and sell drugs and customers had virtually no protection against snake oil salesmen. She said: 

“Look at the lesson from history about when do we regulate drugs. As long as people can sell snake oil, it turns out that nobody really invested in having good drugs that were safe and that helped people.”

She added that it was only after the FDA intervened that pharmaceutical drugs helped the world. Furthermore, The Senator said that the early unregulated days of the Internet are not a good model for the U.S. to structure its regulatory approach to the crypto markets, stating that she doesn’t want to wait until “a whole lot of small investors and traders have been completely wiped out.”


When asked whether retail investors need any top-down protection and whether stringent financial regulators are in fact hurting small-time investors whilst protecting larger players, Warren said:

“I want people to have the freedom to invest. I just don’t want a system where the big guys, the shadowy guys, the guys you never quite see, can go out there and do pump and dump, can defraud people, can take a lot of folks’ money, and then disappear.”

Warren argued that the question is not “just regulation,” but rather how it’s aimed and who takes advantage of there being no rules. Judging from the Senator’s recent comments on cryptocurrencies in Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate’s Banking Committee, Warren believes the real beneficiaries of the lack of regulations are the big “phony populist” crypto companies, cryptocurrency miners, and “shadowy, faceless super-coders” who—she gathers—control the system.

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When asked whether she believes crypto will positively disrupt the financial industry, Senator Warren deflected the question, conceding that “there’s been an enormous failure by big banks to reach consumers all across the country,” and that “digital currency and Central Bank Digital Currency may be an answer there.”

Warren: Cryptocurrencies May Face Inflationary Pressures

Addressing the issue of an increasing number of people buying Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation, Warren said that, while people are free to make their own investment decisions, treating Bitcoin as an inflationary hedge assumes two things:

“One, that what’s happening with Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency is somehow going to be divorced from what’s happening elsewhere in the economy, and secondly that crypto coins are not going to have their own inflationary pressures.”

When reasoning as to how cryptocurrencies may face their own inflationary pressures, she argued that “they may come from a different source than what happens with dollars,” and pointed out the high price volatility of cryptocurrencies as a clear example against their purported benefit as a form of protection or hedge against inflation.

Warren’s latest comments are only the latest in a series of statements in which she has painted crypto in a negative light. On Jun. 10, Warren slammed Bitcoin’s energy consumption during a Senate Banking Committee, and on Jul. 9, she published a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission asking the regulator to address the potential risks of cryptocurrencies and answer questions about current regulation. On Jul. 26, Warren also sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, urging her to bring about a “coordinated and holistic” policy response to the risks of crypto.

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Sen. Warren Nudges Treasury Sec, Regulators to Address Crypto-Related Risks

U.S. Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren and a member of the Senate Banking Committee has sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the subject of stemming risks associated with cryptocurrencies.

The letter, sighted by CNBC, was addressed to Yellen per her role as the chair of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). The nudging seeks to press on other members of the committee who are also market regulators to create a framework through which the broader department of the government will interact with the crypto ecosystem.

“FSOC must act quickly to use its statutory authority to address cryptocurrencies’ risks and regulate the market to ensure the safety and stability of consumers and our financial system,” the Massachusetts Democrat congresswoman wrote in a letter to Yellen. “As the demand for cryptocurrencies continues to grow and these assets become more embedded in our financial system, consumers, the environment, and our financial system are under growing threats.”

Digital currencies have come to stay. However, the threats they pose gives regulators and government stakeholders a major concern. From the embrace of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and stablecoins in payment systems to the threats to the banks posed by decentralised finance (DeFi), regulators want the crypto ecosystem to come under the same or related regulations other market sectors face.

Warren highlights major risks that cryptocurrencies pose, including exposure to hedge funds that lack transparency, the threats from Stablecoins, and the use of digital currencies in cyberattacks. These, the lawmaker believes the FSOC can help forestall drawing strength from its composition or membership, including veterans from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Reserve, and the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC).

However, the clamour for crypto regulation has advised not to be used as leverage to remove strangle financial innovation on American shores. Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming are amongst the proponents of this latter position.

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U.S. Senator Warren Urged To Regulate Cryptocurrencies

U.S. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren recently took a firm stand against cryptocurrency.

In a congressional hearing for the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy on Wednesday, June 9, Warren said that cryptocurrency has significant problems for four reasons: illegal activity, investment issues, price fluctuation, and cost to the environment.

Warren, who is well known for her critiques of Wall Street and the formation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, stated that crypto assets had created opportunities to assist criminals, scam investors, and worsen the environmental crisis.

“The threats posed by crypto show that Congress and federal regulators can’t continue to hide out, hoping that crypto will go away. It won’t. It’s time to confront these issues head-on,” the Massachusetts senator said.

During the hearing, Warren asked Dr. Neha Narula, Director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, if the cryptocurrency system was reliable and stable.  Narula said: “No, it is not, unfortunately,” citing the value of the entire crypto assets have dropped by about 40% over the last two months.

Warren responded: “It means the grocery store could take $100 in Bitcoin to pay for groceries, but by the end of the day, the Bitcoin could be worth only $60, in which case the store loses out.”

Warren also said that within the last two months, the value of Dogecoin rose by more than ten times and then dropped by almost 60%, stating the meme cryptocurrency may work for speculators and fly-by-night investors, but not for ordinary people who are looking for a stable source of value to get paid to use for day-to-day spending.  

Besides that, Warren admitted that the traditional banking system has cut out Americans, particularly people of colour, saying that 33 million households are unbanked or underbanked.

She pointed out that CBDC is preferable to cryptocurrency, citing the central bank digital currency as a great promise to serve as a public alternative to cryptocurrencies.

While Warren attempts to discourage crypto in the US, El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender early this week.

Tough Regulations Coming

Recently, many things have happened within the crypto markets. For example, China shut down cryptocurrency mining and began censoring crypto exchanges last month. This week, US senators and CFTC commissioners attacked cryptocurrencies. Specifically, Senator Warren stated that it is the right time for the US to start regulating alternative currencies.

Such developments come when the US government agencies are urgently working together in a joint regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.  Last month, a report showed that the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) and the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) started working together on addressing issues related to cryptocurrency and developing views on crypto regulations.

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department said that it was taking steps to impose a crackdown on cryptocurrency transactions and markets, stating that it will require any transfer worth $10,000 and more to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

Jerome Powell, US Federal Reserve chief, recently said that cryptocurrency poses risks to financial stability, citing greater regulation of the increasingly popular digital asset may be warranted.

Meanwhile, Hester Peirce, “crypto mum” and SEC commissioner, recently spoke out against attempts by US authorities to regulate cryptocurrencies more strictly, warning that doing so risks discouraging investors.   

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Elizabeth Warren compares ‘bogus’ crypto to ‘legitimate’ CBDCs in senate hearing

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren did not mince words when it came to criticizing crypto, but seemed to consider a federally-backed digital currency as a possible solution to address problems around financial inclusion in the United States.

At a Wednesday session of the Senate Banking Committee discussing a U.S. government-backed central bank digital currency, or CBDC, Warren said the recent explosion in cryptocurrencies had helped many people understand the foundational technology on which digital currencies were based. However, she called crypto a “fourth rate alternative to real currency.”

“Digital currency from central banks has great promise,” said Warren. “Legitimate digital public money could help drive out bogus digital private money.”

Discussing what she labeled as “bogus” currency, Warren cited Dogecoin (DOGE) as an example of many cryptocurrencies’ volatility making them unsuitable as a medium of exchange in her opinion. She called out pump and dump schemes and other apparent efforts to manipulate the prices of certain tokens.

“Crypto is a lousy investment,” said the senator. “Unlike, say, the stock market, the crypto world currently has no consumer protection. As a result, honest investors and people trying to put aside some savings are at the mercy of fraudsters.”

The Massachusetts senator also voiced her opinion on crypto being tied to many illegal activities, all “made easier with crypto,” as well as environmental concerns over crypto mining. She cited the recent ransom by hackers who attacked the Colonial Pipeline, causing fuel shortages for many people in the United States, and claimed some mining operations were “spewing out filth in return for a chance to harvest a few crypto coins.”

“Cryptocurrency has created opportunities to scam investors, assist criminals, and worsen the climate crisis. The threats posed by crypto show that congress and federal regulators can’t continue to hide out, hoping crypto will go away. It won’t. It’s time to confront these issues head on.”