Sherrod Brown, chairman of the United States Banking Committee, has suggested that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) consider banning cryptocurrencies.
NBC's "Meet the Press" featured Brown's comments. He quickly added that a ban would be hard to enforce.
“We want them to do what they need to do at the same time, maybe banning it, although banning it is very difficult because it would go offshore, and who knows how that would work.”
Brown answered a host's earlier question about Senator Jon Tester's opinion that cryptocurrencies should be banned.
He says he has been educating his colleagues and the public about cryptocurrencies over the last 18 months, calling for immediate and aggressive action.
“I’ve already gone to the Treasury and the Secretary and asked for a government-wide assessment through all the various regulatory agencies [....] The SEC has been particularly aggressive, and we need to move forward that way and legislatively if it comes to that,” he added.
Brown pointed to FTX's shock collapse as an example of why a ban might be worth considering but stressed that it was only one element.
Their actions have exacerbated North Korean cybercriminal activity, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and terrorism financing.
Recently, the chairman of the Banking Committee expressed concerns regarding stablecoin issuance and cryptocurrency advertising and marketing.
On Nov. 30, Brown called for an "all-government" approach to regulation of the industry. On Dec. 13, he commended the Justice Department for filing criminal charges against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who is awaiting extradition.
Senator Brown's peers do not all appear to agree with him.
FTX's fall was not a crypto failure, but rather a failure caused by centralized actors, according to Senator Tom Emmer on Nov. 23.
Additionally, Emmer believes that crippling regulation would stifle industry innovation in the United States, leading to the loss of its position of global market dominance, which many believe is already occurring.The incoming chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, Patrick McHenry, is also pro-crypto. To clarify the original, "poorly drafted" tax provision, he requested that crypto tax changes be postponed this week.
