There’s a proposal in the infrastructure bill making its way through Congress that could be bad for crypto. CNBC recently covered the issue in an article titled “White House backs senators pushing for stricter crypto reporting rules.” (Vin Narayanan covered this in more detail in his article here.)
The White House weighed in — somewhat out of the blue — on a contentious battle over competing crypto amendments to the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. It’s chosen to back the side that isn’t as friendly to the world of bitcoin and ethereum.
The fight is over a provision in the bipartisan bill, which raises money through stricter tax rules on cryptocurrency transactions. Crypto advocates argued that the original language in the legislation, which requires brokers of digital assets to report on crypto trading gains, is vague and too broad. And now, amendments are circulating in order to narrow the scope.
This is not great news, but it’s not unexpected either. We’ve known that governments want their share of the crypto industry for a long time, and they appear to be getting serious now.
Luckily the crypto world is fighting back. With a larger user base than ever, the crypto world can now legitimately push back on harmful legislation. If you want to join the fight, contact your Congresspeople. Let them know you demand reasonable legislation that won’t harm the nascent crypto industry.
Overall, I’m not too worried about it. More scrutiny and regulation was inevitable. We just have to make sure it doesn’t damage the industry.
Have a great weekend, everyone.