Trump and Cryptocurrencies: Hopes for Victory in the Election
Date: 2024-10-11 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: IN WORLD
One of the key figures among US financial regulators, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Gary Gensler, called the cryptocurrency industry “saturated with fraudsters and scammers,” adding that due to violations of the law, companies have deprived global investors of huge amounts of money.
Every day, the industry spends millions of dollars on political donations, hoping to influence the outcome of the November elections in the US and ensure more favorable legislative regulation. In addition to the presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, all 435 districts in the House of Representatives and 33 out of 100 seats in the Senate will be re-elected in the elections.
The question of the future of cryptocurrency has become one of the topics where the division of opinion between Trump and the outgoing Biden administration is clearly visible. Trump has been actively courting cryptocurrency supporters, promising to turn America into the “cryptocurrency capital of the planet” and create a “national strategic Bitcoin reserve.” He recently launched a new crypto project called World Liberty Financial, declaring that cryptocurrency is “something we should be doing.” That’s a far cry from his stance three years ago, when he called Bitcoin a “scam” and a threat to the dollar.
While Trump has been a vocal supporter of cryptocurrencies, the Biden administration, of which Harris is a part, has advocated for a crackdown on crypto firms. In the spring, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud. In April, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao also received a prison sentence and a massive $4.3 billion fine for facilitating criminal activity on his platform. The SEC is continuing its legal proceedings against Binance, as well as numerous other cases against crypto companies.
Gensler explains that laws requiring companies to provide information to protect investors have been in place since 1934, and cryptocurrency should be no exception. He believes that cryptocurrencies, although they occupy a small share of global capital markets, undermine investor confidence. Research by the Federal Reserve Bank has shown that cryptocurrency use in the United States has fallen from 12% in 2021 to 7% last year.
Kamala Harris has not made specific comments on cryptocurrencies, but one of her advisers said that she supports policies that will allow new technologies to develop. Meetings with industry representatives give hope for positive changes regardless of the election outcome.
Regulators in other countries are also tightening control over cryptocurrencies. The European Union recently approved new laws to reduce the risks of using cryptocurrencies for criminal purposes. However, such initiatives are still advisory in nature. In the United States, the bill to regulate cryptocurrencies has only passed the House of Representatives so far.
The crypto industry has invested a record $119 million in support of loyal legislators. Experts say crypto firms are seeking to loosen oversight and relax consumer protection laws.
