Biden administration's attitude towards cryptocurrency: more friendly and effective regulation

This week's 1.5 billion Tesla broke the trend of bitcoin in the past month and made bitcoin leap to the next milestone of $50000.Some U.S. state governments, autonomous administrations and their government employees, who have long been friendly to cryptocurrency, immediately responded and expressed their support for the move.

Crypto friendly Senator Cynthia Lummis tweeted yesterday inviting musk and Tesla to move to Wyoming, after Wyoming approved Kraken as an encryption bank and moved last week to allow decentralized Dao to be legal in the state.

Miami mayor Francis Suarez, who has been determined to make Miami the most encryption friendly city in the United States, tweeted on Monday that he was working on a resolution to put bitcoin on the city's balance sheet, and he also called for Amazon to accept bitcoin and let it take off again.Suarez had previously said it would expand bitcoin penetration across the city, including using bitcoin to pay people's wages.Miami is also the first city government to host a bitcoin white paper on a government website.

And as the U.S. Senate began to formally appoint from the Treasury to the various financial institutionssuperviseIt is not difficult for us to see the basic framework of the Biden administration's attitude towards cryptocurrency in the next four years.According to the biographies of the new appointees or nominees reported by the major media, as well as the economic measures expected to be taken at present, we can basically judge that the Biden administration has a more friendly and effective regulatory attitude towards cryptocurrency.

Finance minister Yellen

Janet Yellen was formally appointed by 84 votes to be finance minister.At her appointment hearing, Yellen outlined her support for the Biden agenda, including possible tax increases for the rich.With regard to cryptocurrency, Yellen did not directly mention her method of supervision in this regard in the confirmation hearing.But she did mention that legitimate use of cryptocurrencies, such as decentralized finance, should be encouraged to "improve the efficiency of the financial system.".

Securities and Exchange Commission

Gary Gensler, the new chairman to be appointed to the SEC, served on the commodity futures trading commission during Obama's tenureCFTCPresident, and served as Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration.Gensler previously referred to blockchain technology as a "catalyst for change" and bluntly pointed out the importance of cryptocurrency."If cryptocurrency is part of the future, it has to be part of public policy to prevent illegal activities," Gensler told Reuters in 2018.We need to protect investors.For large exchanges like coinbase, cryptocurrency exchanges need to be inside the SEC or CFTC. "

The crypto community generally believes that Gensler will provide strong support for the US central bank to support digital currency, and will also play an important role in government initiatives on cryptocurrency and blockchain, such as the approval of bitcoin (BTC) exchange traded funds (ETFs).Jake chervinsky, lawyer and general counsel of compound, a decentralized financial start-up, said in a tweet on January 12 that "Gary Gensler has a deep understanding of cryptocurrency technology and has been supporting bitcoin for many years.His election as chairman of the securities and Exchange Commission marks a shift in policy toward bitcoin ETFs. "

Currently, Gensler is Professor of global economics and management practice at MIT Sloan School of management, CO director of MIT, and senior consultant of MIT's digital currency program. He studies artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and new financial technology.

In addition, the departure of Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the SEC, is good news for the crypto community. He has long been skeptical of the digital finance industry. During Clayton's tenure, no bitcoin ETF has been approved.

At present, many investment companies and financial institutions led by fidelity have applied to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for new bitcoin trust fund or bitcoin ETF. We can expect that cryptocurrency will be better regulated under the influence of Gensler.

Office of the Comptroller of the currency

Another focus of the Biden administration is the OCC.Brian Brooks, the former head of OCC in the trump administration, has left office, and before leaving office, he announced that banks could use stable currency and blockchain to process payments.In response, the OCC issued an "explanation letter" on January 6 to specifically explain the policy, pointing out that federal chartered banks are allowed to conduct standard transactions using cryptocurrencies with stable prices.This is a milestone step in the process of stable currency supervision and creates more potential for cryptocurrency.

Before leaving office, Brooks explained the importance of decentralized Finance: "this is decentralization.In the crypto world, there is no CEO.Encryption is about freedom. ".Brooks was the legal head of coinbase.

The Wall Street Journal predicts that the Biden administration will nominate Michael Barr as the OCC leader. Barr was appointed as a member of Ripple Labs Advisory Committee in 2015. At that time, he was keen to promote innovation in the field of payment. "Our global payment system is outdated. I believe that innovation in payment can help make the financial system safer, reduce costs, and improve access and efficiency for consumers and businesses. "

If Michael Barr is formally nominated and appointed, it can be expected that blockchain technology and cryptocurrency will be further applied and supervised in the US financial industry.

Commodity futures trading commission CFTC

According to reports from Reuters, Chris Brummer is expected to become the next chairman of CFTC. Brummer is currently a professor and head of the Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University. He studies digital technology, including cryptocurrency and international finance. A person familiar with the matter said that besides CFTC Chairman, brummer was also considered to take other financial positions in Biden administration.

It can be expected that if Brummer is formally nominated and elected, he will advise Yellen on the regulatory affairs related to cryptocurrency, and at the same time provide assistance to the derivatives market of digital assets.