Bitcoin Flat on Reports of White House Crypto Executive Order
Executive order from Biden White House would create a whole of government approach to studying crypto’s implications on everything from financial regulation to national security
US President Joe Biden; Blockworks Exclusive Art by Axel Rangel
key takeaways
- As digital assets become closely ingrained into the broader economy, the Biden White House wants to take a serious look at crypto across the whole of government
- This comes days after the US Department of Justice announced the creation of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team
An executive order on crypto is in the process of being drafted by the Biden administration, reports Bloomberg News.
Unlike other moves on cryptocurrencies, which were related to aspects such as taxation, this move from the White House would create a whole of government approach to the issue and task various federal agencies to study crypto and analyze how it impacts the area of their specific jurisdiction.
According to Bloomberg, this is everything from financial regulation, economic innovation, national security, to taxation. This differs from previous announcements from the White House, which have specifically focused on taxation and law enforcement.
This comes as President Biden’s pick for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Saule Omarova, a professor at Cornell Law School, announced she wants to “end banking as we know it” via greater government oversight of Wall Street and cryptocurrencies.
“The success of Bitcoin paved the road for the subsequent emergence of numerous crypto-assets purporting to challenge the supremacy of sovereign money,” she previously wrote. Omarova has not yet been confirmed as OCC chair.
Earlier this year, the White House had signaled that crypto was on its radar when it announced a crackdown on tax evasion and the facilitation of illegal activity via crypto.
Just on Wednesday, On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced the creation of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), to tackle complex investigations and prosecutions of criminal misuses of cryptocurrency.
“Cryptocurrency already poses a significant detection problem by facilitating illegal activity broadly including tax evasion,” the Treasury department said in a May release. “This is why the President’s proposal includes additional resources for the IRS to address the growth of cryptoassets.”
This summer’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal was held up in Congress because of issues relating to taxes. An initial draft of the bill required crypto “brokers” to have tax reporting requirements, and the first language had requirements that would be impossible for many to meet.
The price of bitcoin has remained fairly stable in the hour since Bloomberg’s report; down 0.2% to $54,484, according to CoinGecko.
