Published: August 2nd, 2023
Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis told supporters at a political rally this week that he would end the US government’s 'campaign of harassment’ against the crypto industry, signing a pro-Bitcoin decree on his first day in office if elected to the White House.
Speaking to a crowd during a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Monday, DeSantis, who is governor of Florida, said ‘Biden's battle to stop the rise of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency will cease immediately when I become president.’
DeSantis, who is fighting an uphill battle against former president Donald Trump for the Republican Party nomination, has expressed support for Bitcoin in the past. On Monday he reiterated his impartial attitude toward crypto and criticised the Biden administration’s push for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
‘When I become President, plans for a US CBDC go straight into the bin. We will not allow it.’
Unlike cryptocurrencies, which are created and distributed privately, CBDCs would be issued by a country’s central bank and could be designed to limit or ban some transactions. As Florida Governor, DeSantis actually banned issuance of any federal CBDC within the state’s borders, saying it would be used as a mechanism for government surveillance and control.
After announcing his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis joined Elon Musk in a Twitter Spaces broadcast to clarify his position on crypto. He said that citizens have 'the right’ to use Bitcoin. He said that he supports the technology personally, and that its existence is under threat if current US President Joe Biden is re-elected.
‘Bitcoin is a threat to the Democrats and their backers in traditional finance,’ DeSantis said at the time. ‘They want to regulate it out of existence.’
US crypto firms are already moving operations overseas to avoid American restrictions on banking access and regulatory clampdowns. Industry leaders like Coinbase and Grayscale have taken to the courts to fight Washington for the freedom to launch new products. Both firms say they also want more regulatory clarity.
If it happens, a DeSantis presidency would reverse current political thinking in the US and open the door to greater crypto adoption.
Last month, the G20’s finance watchdog warned that wider systemic risk is on the cards if crypto firms aren’t reined in, and soon.
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) said that the continuing fallout from recent crypto catastrophes demands that financial regulators obtain greater oversight of the industry. The agency’s just-published global regulatory framework for crypto-assets was strongly influenced by last year’s crypto failures, specifically the collapse of FTX and Terra.
To grapple with those risks, the FSB listed nine core recommendations for financial regulators as they attempt to control how crypto companies and markets operate. The agency has also revised its guidance on regulatory rules for stablecoins.
The recommendations, which incorporate industry and investor feedback gathered during a public consultation on the topic, said there must be greater cross-border collaboration between national and international agencies, mandatory disclosures for traders and investment firms, and more stringent governance for crypto issuers.
The FSB said its suggestions had become ‘more robust’ in the aftermath of recent crypto events, and now incorporate a push for stronger safeguarding of client assets, as well as measures to mitigate conflicts of interest.
‘The large-scale failures we’ve seen over the last 18 months spotlight how volatile crypto assets can be and point to structural vulnerabilities that could damage investors large and small,’ the Zurich-based agency said in a statement. ‘They also demonstrate how quickly failure in one part of the crypto-asset ecosystem can turn into contagion and contaminate other parts.’
The agency added that it expects more spillover of crises to occur as the crypto and traditional finance worlds become more intertwined.
Crypto enthusiasts naturally view the wave of enforcements actions taking place across the globe with distress, but there are signs that well-regulated markets for digital assets could also open the door to greater adoption.
In early July, Britain’s new Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 officially became the law of the land this week, recognizing crypto trading as a regulated and legitimate financial services activity. The UK reform bill, which was given
Royal Assent by King Charles on Tuesday, was described in a Westminster press release as having the potential to give Britain's economy ‘a rocket boost.’
Under the new law, cryptocurrency trading can now be subject to rules and regulations designed to protect investors, levelling the playing field by adding transparency, standard definitions, and risk mitigation to crypto trades. The amended
Act defines digital assets as ‘cryptographically secured digital representations of contractual rights or underlying value,’ and labels them as regulated financial products, investments, or instruments.
The Treasury press release noted that the goal of the law is to regulate how crypto assets are traded and held in custody and ensure their safe adoption in the country. The new law is being touted by the government of Prime Minister Rishi
Sunak as a much-needed modernisation of Britain’s financial-services dependent economy.
‘This new law enables us to take back control of the UK's financial services regulatory regime,' said Economic Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith. ‘By replacing old EU laws set by bureaucrats in Brussels it has the potential to free up billions of Pounds in investment, money that could spur innovation and drive economic growth’.
In Britain's parliamentary procedure for enacting new laws, Royal Assent is the end of the legal process that makes a proposed bill the law of the land, turning it into an Act of Parliament. The bill passed a vote in the House of Commons and was approved by the House of Lords in late June.
In early June, the price of Bitcoin fell sharply and triggered an overall plunge in crypto markets after the SEC began enforcement action against Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange.