AP
- President Joe Biden has finally signed a long-awaited executive order on cryptocurrencies.
- It wasn’t the crackdown many in crypto had feared, and many liked it a lot. But there were some question marks.
- Here’s what Sam Bankman-Fried, Anthony Scaramucci, Mike Novogratz and other top crypto voices had to say.
President Joe Biden has finally signed his long-awaited executive order on cryptocurrencies — and it’s not the crackdown many in the community had feared.
For months, the Biden administration has been warning it would step up crypto market scrutiny, putting the industry on tenterhooks.
But when the whole-of-government strategy was revealed Wednesday, it didn’t promise any regulations for the sector. Instead, it laid out policy priorities for digital assets and tried to tackle the lack of a regulatory framework for crypto, by unifying oversight across federal agencies.
It was widely welcomed in the crypto community. Bitcoin jumped to top $42,000 Wednesday after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s office accidentally leaked details of the order.
But while Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss called the order a “watershed moment,” not everyone was fully convinced. Here’s what Sam Bankman-Fried, Mike Novogratz and other leading voices in crypto had to say about it.
Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried
“I don’t think it moves the needle that much from where we were before. I think it’s more just a reflection of where the administration is than anything else,” the CEO of crypto exchange FTX told CNBC.
“Which is to say: There isn’t a lot of conclusiveness about where this will end up.”
Antoni Trenchev, managing partner at crypto lender Nexo
“If there ever were any remaining risks of an international or US-led crackdown on crypto, those are gone,” he told CNBC.
‘Shark Tank’ investor Kevin O’Leary
“The @POTUS executive order is a direct shot over the bow of public #Bitcoin mining companies. There is now an Initiative to audit the carboneutrality of these miners,” the crypto investor said in a tweet.
“Carbon credits are un-auditable so it will end badly for these stocks. I sold them all!”
Jake Chervinsky, head of policy at the Blockchain Association
“The main concern was that the EO might force rushed rulemaking or impose new & bad restrictions, but there’s nothing like that here. It’s about as good as we could ask,” he tweeted.
“One feature of the EO that I can’t figure out: it doesn’t mention tax policy once. That’s pretty weird, given how many tax issues are unresolved,” he added.
Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital
“This day and October 6 of last year were the two seminal days for the American government, as it relates to cryptocurrency. October 6 we got the bitcoin futures, and today we are being told by our government that frankly bitcoin is here to stay, and there will be responsible innovation that will be regulated by the government,” he told CNBC.
“And so you’re seeing a lot of short covering today, and you’re now starting to see institutions revisit the idea that they need a crypto strategy.”
Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz
“Crypto and public blockchains will reshape the world in ways we can’t imagine. The Executive Order is welcomed engagement from the administration,” the billionaire crypto investor tweeted.
“The window for US leadership in the global cryptoeconomy is now.”
CoinShares’ chief strategy officer, Meltem Demirors
“There are 46 million Americans who own cryptocurrency. The government needs to stop treating them as criminals. Biden’s Executive Order was overly negative in tone in my opinion,” she said on Twitter.
“The EO dedicated several pages to CBDCs, i.e. the idea of a digital dollar, but made little mention of bitcoin, ethereum, or public blockchain networks which are the backbone of crypto culture. SAD.”
Anthony Pompliano, co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital
“The United States just publicly said they want to be the leader in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies,” he posted on Twitter.
“The global competition is underway.”
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