Executive Order On Cryptocurrency Coming Next Week, Here’s What We Know…

By ProCoinNews • February 17, 2022 10:10 pm • Comments

An Executive Order from Joe Biden was supposed to come this week.

It never did.

Now reports say it is coming next week, and here is what we know so far about what it might contain…

Trending: Ripple Spells Out Penalty Terms To SEC

From Yahoo Finance:

President Biden is expected to issue an executive order next week directing agencies across the government to study cryptocurrencies and a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and come up with a government-wide strategy to regulate digital assets.

According to an administration official familiar with the matter, the forthcoming directive will commission a study of a CBDC and ask a range of agencies – including the Departments of Treasury, State, Justice and Homeland Security – to develop a report on the future of money and payment systems. Meanwhile, the Director of the Office of Science and Tech policy will do a technical evaluation of what might be needed to support a CBDC system.

The move comes as Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that a rift has developed between the White House and Treasury over crypto regulation, but a Treasury official disputed the account as “inaccurate.” The administration is engaged in a wide-ranging effort to regulate the sector, with the FBI forming a new crypto unit led by a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), created after the 2008 financial crisis to monitor risks to the system, will be asked to study financial stability issues that arise from digital assets. The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets has already tasked the FSOC with looking into systemic risks of stablecoins.

This week, Treasury Undersecretary Nellie Liang told the Senate that the council is discussing the prospect of risks stablecoins pose and taking steps to see what authorities regulators have. Treasury is hopeful Congress will act since its authorities are limited.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General, along with the FTC and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will be asked to consider what impact the growth in digital assets could have on market competition. The SEC, CFTC and Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC are expected to weigh market protection measures within their jurisdictions

The order will also look at measures to protect consumers, investors and businesses. Treasury in consultation with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission and federal banking agencies will be in charge of developing that report to the president on how to protect against risks to cryptocurrencies.

The FTC Chairman and Director of the CFPB will also be asked to look at privacy issues potentially created for digital assets.

According to reports, the Federal Government will be “studying CBDCs” and coming up with reports.

Where have these people been for the past 7 years?

Only government could think 2022 was the time to start studying crypto.

Meanwhile, some reports say the delay is due to a clash in opinion between Biden and Yellen.

From Yahoo Finance:

An executive order by President Joe Biden to give the federal government a bigger hand in cryptocurrency policy was delayed following a disagreement between the White House and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen over how big a role the government should play.

The Biden administration had hoped to sign the order at the beginning of the year, Bloomberg reported. But disputes between Yellen’s staff and officials on the National Economic Council have slowed its progress, according to anonymous officials who spoke with Bloomberg. Senior administration officials have finished a draft version for Biden, but for now, much of his focus is on tensions between Russian and Ukraine.

The executive order is designed to provide a comprehensive government strategy on cryptocurrency. It would give the White House a central role overseeing policies and regulation regarding digital assets, according to a CoinDesk report last month citing an unnamed Bloomberg source.

The order would also seek input from different federal agencies — including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — over how the crypto industry should comply with federal law.

Meanwhile, reports broke today that another branch of the government is also getting into crypto…

The FBI is forming a unit:

To which we said the following:

And the Digital Asset Investor already had their first case all lined up for them:

Here’s more, from Reuters:

The U.S. Justice Department has tapped a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor to lead its new national cryptocurrency enforcement team and announced on Thursday that the FBI is launching a unit for blockchain analysis and virtual asset seizure.

The creation of the FBI’s “virtual asset exploitation” unit comes after the Justice Department’s largest-ever financial seizure earlier this month. It charged a married New York couple with allegedly laundering bitcoins now valued at over $4.5 billion that were stolen in the 2016 hack of the digital currency exchange Bitfinex.

U.S. regulators under President Joe Biden have been ratcheting up their scrutiny of the crypto industry in the wake of a series of high-profile cyberattacks last year on the largest U.S. fuel pipeline network and the world’s largest beef supplier. Ransomware groups often demand their fees in bitcoin.

In some of those cases, the FBI has been able to track down and recover some of the ransom.

Cryptocurrencies rely on blockchain technology, a database shared across a network of computers, in which records are difficult to change once added.

In a speech at the Munich Cyber Security Conference in Germany, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced that Eun Young Choi, a prosecutor who led the case against a Russian hacker who helped steal information about more than 80 million JPMorgan & Chase Co customers, will lead the department’s cryptocurrency enforcement team.

Choi, who most recently served as Monaco’s senior counsel, worked for nearly a decade as a cybercrime coordinator and assistant U.S. attorney in New York, according to her LinkedIn profile. the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York.

“We are issuing a clear warning to criminals who use cryptocurrency to fuel their schemes,” Monaco said.

A clear warning to criminals who use cryptocurrency to fuel their schemes?

What is this a Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon?

Is that really the best the FBI has to offer?

Is this really where we want our tax dollars spent?

Is this just more “protection” of the public?

If this is protection, I think I’ll take my chances unprotected if you don’t mind!

Is there a way to opt-out?

I think I’m in an abusive relationship with the United States of America…

Anyone know where you can find any of that “freedom” I keep hearing about?

Maybe I’m just jaded…

Curious to know what you think.

Join the conversation!

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