The chief policy officer of a prominent blockchain advocacy group says that Senator Elizabeth Warren is attempting a de facto ban of digital assets in the US.
According to The Blockchain Association’s Jake Chervinsky, Warren’s crypto bill, which was first introduced to the Senate in December 2022, is effectively a ban on crypto assets in the US and could be the reason why she’s having issues finding co-sponsors for it.
Chervinksy says that the bill would ban run-of-the-mill activities associated with cryptocurrencies, such as staking and mining.
“Senator Warren’s bill would impose a de facto ban on crypto in the USA, criminalizing all sorts of legitimate activity like mining and staking, while doing nothing to actually combat illicit finance. It’s no surprise she’s having trouble finding co-sponsors.”
Earlier this year at a Senate hearing, Warren announced her plans to reintroduce the bill, called the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, alongside Senator Roger Marshall.
According to Warren, criminals are drawn to crypto assets and the legislation attempts to close the loopholes that bad actors use by implementing similar anti-money regulations found in traditional finance to the digital assets industry as well.
“We have money laundering rules that cover banks and credit unions and stockbrokers and gold dealers and even Western Union, but the current rules don’t cover big parts of the crypto industry…
Look, the rules should be simple: same kind of transaction, same kind of risk, means the same kind of rules. And that’s why Senator Roger Marshall and I are reintroducing our anti-money laundering bill to clamp down on crypto crime and to give regulators the tools they need to stop the flow of crypto to drug traffickers in places like North Korea and Iran.”
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