Bitcoin is once again in the US Congressional arena. Senator Elizabeth Warren resumes her lost crusade against “unhosted wallets”.
The scarecrow of terrorism
Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill last week aimed at combating the use of bitcoin in criminal financial activities.
The senator became active shortly after the October 7 skirmishes in Israel. She relied on an article from Wall Street Journal who was very quick to attribute the financing of Hamas to bitcoin.
So prompt that the Chainalysis firm quickly warned that the figures cited in the article were probably incorrect.
A week later, it was the turn ofElliptical to publish its own correction, conceding that its data had been misinterpreted. In truth, there was no evidence to suggest that cryptocurrency fundraising reached the amounts cited in the WSJ.
The sums at stake were close to $450,000, compared to $82 million put forward by the WSJ… But that was all it took for the Democrat to get more than 100 members of Congress to sign a letter calling for the repression of bitcoin.
Elizabeth Warren brought out the heavy artillery in worn-out clichés to try to obtain a majority in Congress:
“The Treasury Department is making clear that we need new laws to crack down on the use of cryptocurrencies that allows terrorist groups, rogue nations, drug lords, ransomware gangs and fraudsters to launder billions dollars in stolen funds, evade sanctions, finance illegal weapons programs and profit from devastating cyber-attacks.
In fact, less than 1% of bitcoin transactions are linked to criminal activity.
Bitcoin wallets in the crosshairs
Like the European Commission, it is ultimately the possibility of being able to hold your own money that is disturbing. Here is what we can read in the law:
“Unhosted wallet – The term “unhosted wallet” refers to software or hardware that facilitates the storage of public and private keys used to digitally sign and carry out secure transactions with bitcoin. The y value being stored is the property of the wallet owner. »
This is what politicians who are fond of CBDC really dream of banning one day: NO KYC wallets. Bitcoin harms their ambitions for total control over our lives.
Elizabeth Warren stepped up the pressure this week in a letter accusing exchanges of hiring former national security and justice officials to lobby against its regulations.
Funny when we know that it was the banks who wrote the text of the law:
GOP leader Senator @RogerMarshallMD revealed that the American Bankers Association was the author. »
Banks fear losing part of their income. Particularly with regard to international fund transfers. The Lightning Network also threatens the flowerbeds of Visa and Mastercard.
The CEO of the Coinbase exchange hit back today. Brian Armstrong recalled that 52 million potential voters for the 2024 presidential election have already used cryptocurrencies.
Not to mention the fact that bitcoin is up 160% year to date. Or that giants such as BlackRock and Fidelity have no interest in this murderous legislation.
Maximize your Tremplin.io experience with our ‘Read to Earn’ program! For every article you read, earn points and access exclusive rewards. Sign up now and start earning benefits.
