Friday, February 12, 2021

Treasury Secretary Yellen Signals Heavy Regulation of Cryptocurrencies is Coming


On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, a new department inside the Treasury met for the first time, the Financial Sector Innovation Policy Roundtable.

The Roundtable consisted of the insider crowd. It brought together policymakers and regulators with connected individuals from the private sector.

Among other topics, participants discussed how governments across the world can work domestically and cooperate internationally to develop and implement new financial and regulatory tools in the era of digital finance, and drive adoption of trustworthy and cutting-edge digital identity solutions to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism and other crimes.

Treasury Secretary Yellen spoke to the Roundtable and brought the idea of more government regulation of cryptocurrencies down to the goal line. 

From her comments:

Good morning, everyone – and welcome to the Department’s first Financial Sector Innovation Policy Roundtable. I’ve been on the job exactly two weeks, and I’m very glad to be meeting with this group so early in my tenure.

Treasury touches a wide, wide range of policy areas. That’s the first thing you notice when you become Secretary – how big the Department is. But I want you to know that I’m very enthusiastic about the work of this particular group; the work modernizing our financial system with new technologies.

When my time at the Department is over, I would like to look back and say we’ve been able to out-innovate many of the country’s big challenges. I think we have an opportunity to do that.

When Congress passed the Anti-Money Laundering Act in December, it gave our Department a mandate: to renovate the framework for combating illicit finance. That framework was designed in the ‘70s – and has been more or less the same ever since...

My message to you is: Our department is here to help scale and leverage that kind of responsible innovation. By working together, we can better stem the flow of dark money from organized crime and terrorist financiers. We’ll be better able to spot criminals who want to sell weapons of mass destruction on the black market. And we’ll be better positioned to stop adversaries from hacking our institutions or interfering in our elections.

The update couldn’t have come at a better time. As this group knows very well, we’re living amidst an explosion of risk related to fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and data privacy. As the pandemic has moved more of life online, crime has moved with it. We’re seeing more – and more sophisticated – cyberattacks aimed at institutions that hold up our society: hospitals, schools, banks, and even our government.

The misuse of cryptocurrencies and virtual assets is a growing problem, too. I see the promise of these new technologies, but I also see the reality: cryptocurrencies have been used to launder the profits of online drug traffickers; they’ve been a tool to finance terrorists.

Of course, governments always couch greater intrusions on privacy as a battle against terrorism. They are going to make cryptocurrencies the most trackable monetary instruments known to man. And then, when the Fed is ready to launch its own digital currency, they will know just how to force the conversion of all cryptocurrencies into Fed coin.

The next step in this direction started this Tuesday and Wednesday.

-RW

8 comments:

  1. "...we’re living amidst an explosion of risk related to fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and data privacy."
    Does data privacy really belong in that group? (Well, from the government's perspective, I suppose it IS a grave threat...).

    And this---> "We’re seeing more – and more sophisticated – cyberattacks aimed at institutions that hold up our society: hospitals, schools, banks, and even our government."
    Can someone be more wrong-headed as to think that government "holds up our society"--? (well, it does, in a highwayman sort of way).

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  2. They are going to block all exits, then unleash a monetary flood of money. Yes they are that crazy. "Go Big" for the "Great Reset".

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  3. "...cryptocurrencies have been used to launder the profits of online drug traffickers; they’ve been a tool to finance terrorists."

    -- Not nearly as much as the USD!

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    1. Same lame excuse they used for eliminating the large denomination notes ($500, $1000, $5000, and $10,000), minus the "online" part, of course.

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  4. The government doesn't like competition and the Biden administration is full of hedge fund corporate cronies. "Say it's to fight terrorism so we can crack down." Remember 9/11 and the Patriot Act? Yeah, that was the same kind of claim. No, this is an attack on us prols.

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  5. Bitcoin and other crypto currency enthusiasts will not accept the fact that what they are doing is simply creating acceptance for what the powers that be have wanted since it was first proposed by technocracy. An energy based currency that is tracked. That's the only reason bitcoin and the others wasn't stomped out years ago and the reason why the environmentalists aren't all up in arms about the CO2 footprint of 'mining' it.

    A currency that is based on nothing more than the needless consumption of electricity must have a greater purpose and the only one I can think of control.

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  6. She's a liar. She and her banker friends all bought BITCOIN

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  7. "And then, when the Fed is ready to launch its own digital currency, they will know just how to force the conversion of all cryptocurrencies into Fed coin."

    Cryptocurrencies require one important component that governments are becoming less apt at providing: electricity. A Bitcoin billionaire is on par with a homeless bum in Texas right now. Good luck finding a plumber that takes anything other than cash, or using your phone to pay for the last gallon of milk in a ten mile radius.

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