SEC Chairman Gary Gensler says that the SEC has no plan to ban cryptocurrencies as China has done. He noted that it would be up to Congress to make such a decision.
Source: SEC Chairman Gary Gensler: No Plan to Ban Crypto, It's up to Congress – Regulation Bitcoin News
How likely do you think it is that the congress will ban cryptos?
Why would they? The government has never banned any other sort of currency before.
Crypto currencies are huge energy sucks, have no real purpose besides shady dealings, if grows significant enough would be a monkey wrench to monetary policy, and undermines “legitimate” currencies.
The USD is backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. Crypto currency is backed by the same thing that backed Tulip investors, which is to say jack squat.
I’m not sure I see Congress outright banning them, but I do see them regulating cryptocurrencies to the point that they really aren’t cryptocurrencies anymore.
How likely it is depends on how much Congress and their donors have invested.
Are you forgetting about gold and silver certificates that were redeemable for their value in the corresponding precious metal? So-called "hard " currency.
You can still get those, too. The government just got out of the business of selling them.
But they are not redeemable any more. So in effect hard currency was banned in favor of fiat.
You can still buy paper redeemable for gold or silver all over the place. The internet is full of ads for them. It’s just Uncle Sam who left that business, not everyone else. The analogous action would be for Uncle Sam to leave the crypto business, except (so far as anyone knows) they were never in that one.
Time for a history lesson.
Maybe they’ll believe you. They certainly don’t believe me.
The Stamp Payment Act of 1862 prohibits issuing currency with a value of less than $1. There seems to be a lot of discussion about whether cryptocurrency violates this law (still on the books), since it can be subdivided into tokens worth less than $1. This analysis (section 2.1) says they squeak by because the SPA explicitly mentions physical tokens: “any note, check, memorandum, token, or other obligation”. The “other obligation” part is dicey though.
Another one:
In addition to the ban on gold mentioned by other posters, the US has also banned the currency of Iran, and put significant pressure on its allies to do the same.
An administration official explained that according to the new Executive Order “significant transactions in the rial will expose anyone to sanctions,” and predicted “it should cause banks and exchanges to dump their rial holdings.”
Unless cryptocurrencies become a direct threat to US currency I don’t see why Congress would ban them. The fact that they aren’t backed by anything just makes them a risky investment. The world is full of risky investments that people can legally buy. They are apparently a huge energy sink, and that could theoretically impact the US Economy someday, but we’re a long way from that happening.
I don’t think they’ll ban them. They’re taxing them now (as property), so as long as they can make money from crypto, they’ll keep it around. Virtual Currencies
Maybe, but are cryptocurrencies, in fact, currencies? What defines a currency, anyway?
Certainly hope not as my daughter works for one of the companies. I’m doing my motherly duty of biting my tongue as she waxes poetic about how great it is to work for a crypto company named Kraken. At least as an CPA she can get another job if this one goes belly up.
I wondering why Congress would care about Big Foot or the Loch Ness monster, but I see I read the title too hastily.
Although, there might be an untapped market in monster-themed currencies.
I wish they would. Seems to me that there is no legitimate reason to use cryptos, it’s all to avoid taxes or law enforcement.
Sure but if there is no legitimate use how is banning it going to make a difference? The drug dealer isn’t going to say oh no I can’t accept crypto because its illegal. At best banning it would just cement its use in the underground economy.