Tighter crypto regulations are coming to U.S. from February

This country has been an epicenter for the cryptocurrencyA digital currency running on a blockchain and built with cryptography. Contrary to central-bank issued currency, cryptocurrency issuance rules are... world, probably, since the beginning. However, after the full crypto ban by China in 2021, that increased even more. And that’s maybe why the United States’ lawmakers and authorities are aiming for tighter crypto regulations in 2022, starting from February.

According to a recent report by Bloomberg, the White House itself is preparing an executive order about the topic. It’ll be an “initial government-wide strategy” to apply more specific regulations on the activities with cryptocurrencies. Apparently, the draft includes economic, regulatory, and national security challenges posed by cryptocurrencies, and would ask for reports from several agencies in the upcoming months.

The U.S. Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would be looking for more power to control cryptocurrencies as well. As indicated in an investigation by Coin Center, the soon-to-pass bill “America COMPETES Act of 2022” will give more power to the Treasury to ban transactions and financial companies without consulting. At least, if there are “reasonable grounds” to link those operations and companies with money laundering.

In this sense, Coin Center explained:

“For example, if the Secretary of the Treasury deems that either (a) the Netherlands, (b) a Dutch crypto exchange, (c) all cryptocurrency transactions validated by a minerMiners secure some blockchain networks by ordering crypto transactions into blocks and verifying the blocks of other miners. For this... outside of the US, or (d) all non-custodial wallets are “of primary money laundering concern,” then she can swiftly make it illegal for any US financial institution (regulated cryptocurrency exchanges included) from maintaining accounts for customers involving those “concerns.”

This bill still has to be passed by Congress. For its part, the SEC pretends to use a more subtle strategy: change the legal definition of “exchange”, in order to encompass on its rules “alternative trading methods”, such as Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms.

More positive crypto regulations

Not everything is bad news. The SEC’s proposal still has 30 days to receive comments and amendments. Beyond this, there’s a proposal to make BitcoinBitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency. It was created in 2009, by an anonymous founder or group of founders... More (BTC) legal tender in Arizona. It’s been promoted by the senator for the state of Arizona, Wendy Rogers.

If Bitcoin passes as legal tender (like it already happened in El Salvador), it’d be obligatory to accept it almost everywhere, from merchants to taxes. However, the current U.S. Constitution doesn’t allow individual states to choose their own legal tender. The bill would need to be approved the Congress.

In the meantime, Arizona is still a crypto-friendly jurisdiction. The state even has some legal provisions to protect crypto investors and miners. They also have their own committee to oversee blockchainBlockchain is a type of database storing an immutable set of data, verifiable to anyone with access to it —through... and cryptocurrencies since 2021 and have been creating sandboxes for Fintech companies. Besides, they support several big bitcoin miners and companies, especially after the huge miners’ exodus from China last year.

Featured Image by Steve Buissinne / Pixabay

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