Bitcoin is in ascendance again. Positive fundamental forces are originating from Facebook and Fidelity crypto initiatives. Institutional investors want to get in the game, if they have not already. The public, global regulators, and government officials are becoming more receptive to the notions of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, thereby allowing fear and ridicule to dissipate once and for all. For those and many more reasons, it is then quite disheartening to hear that a Democratic Representative from California, Brad Sherman, wants to ban all cryptocurrencies.
Sherman has served in the House for over two decades, is a Harvard Law School grad, but he is also known as a Bitcoin-basher. On May 9th, before the House Financial Services Committee, Sherman declared:
I look for colleagues to join with me in introducing a bill to outlaw cryptocurrency purchases by Americans, so that we nip this in the bud, in part because an awful lot of our international power comes from the fact that the dollar is the standard unit of international finance and transactions.
This is not the first time that Sherman has expressed his disdain for cryptos. In the past, he has ranted on that cryptos were only used by crooks and criminals for money laundering, tax evasion, drug dealing, and disguising global capital flows. Since Hamas used cryptos, case closed, according to Sherman. He never garnered support, but 21 other Congressmen soon formed the Crypto Caucus to promote Bitcoin, cryptos, and blockchain technology.
This time around, the tune has changed a bit:
It is the announced purpose of the supporters of cryptocurrency to take that power away from us, to put us in a position where the most significant sanctions we have on Iran, for example, would become irrelevant. Whether it is to dis-empower our foreign policy, our tax collection enforcement, or our traditional law enforcement, the purposes of cryptocurrency – the advantage it has over sovereign currency – is solely to aid in the dis-empowerment of the United States and of the rule of law.
Critics of Sherman, after a bit of digging on their own, have discovered that his current position on cryptos may be driven more by his campaign donors that by a feeling of national pride. One researcher revealed that one of his larger donors was actually a major credit card processing company. One notable crypto analyst, “TheCryptoDog”, noted what some might consider hypocrisy. His actual tweet disclosed: “Brad Sherman was so concerned about crypto users using cryptocurrency for deceptive and illegal financial activity, yet his top campaign donation came from a company that had to forfeit $13.3 million to the US Government for facilitating illegal gambling.”
Will Sherman gain any support this time around? Most everyone involved would admit that it is far too late to close the barn door on the crypto “horses”. To attempt anything of this nature would push related jobs and capital overseas to more accommodating markets, or even underground, if all nations across the planet joined in with a total ban.
The argument that Bitcoin is a threat to the power of the U.S. Dollar is also a touch on the ludicrous side of the token, so to speak. The U.S. Money Supply is $14.5 trillion. If you do the math, one Bitcoin would have to be valued at $1 million in order to equate to that figure. Believe it or not, a few analysts have suggested that $1 million figure as a long-term forecast, but, perhaps, only when frogs learn to fly. In the meantime, Representative Sherman surely has more important things to rant about in Congress