According to Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif, the latest US bill dubbed COMPETES – Act will enhance the level of competition between US businesses and US economy while countering China’s anti-competitive actions. Visit – https://brexitmillionaire.org/
However, following the proposal made by Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., Coin Center, the non-profit crypto policy advocacy group warned that such policy would grant Janet Yellen, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury unilateral and unchecked power. Hence, she will have the authority to ban financial institutions and regulated exchanges from carrying out transactions.
According to this week’s committee statement, Himes’ provision simplifies the method by which unique criteria may be implemented, and modernizes the powers bestowed to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. It proposes that this should be done by enabling the agency to watch malicious actors such as those laundering the income of Chinese ransomware.
Himes first proposed the identical measure in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. It would authorize the Treasury Secretary to make use of the Bank Secrecy Act, mandating financial institutions in the United States to cooperate with federal agencies involved in investigations related to money laundering to compel such parties to provide transaction information and even freeze accounts.
The proposal was first raised by Jerry Brito, the Executive Director of Coin Center who affirmed that it would be bad for due process, privacy and cryptocurrency in general. He argues this would also get rid of the BSA’s public comment and notice obligations.
“It gives the secretary the authority to ban any bitcoin transactions (or other form of transaction) without any procedure, rulemaking, or time limit,” Brito writes on Twitter.
“This is the moment to reach our to all your members of Congress and prompt them to take action to ensure that comment and notice as well as time limits, are not abolished,” he added.
A Republican congressman from North Carolina, Ted Budd turned to Twitter to claim that the provision’s “unilateral” powers would eliminate all public participation, and that he has put forward a revision to eliminate such phrase.
Several blockchain security specialists also believe lawmakers may have gone too far with the particular legislation.
According to Michael Fasanello, the bill will certainly bestow Secretary Yellen the absolute power to prohibit transactions of digital assets if she and are group consider it to have money laundering concerns.
Fasanello, who is presently the director of Blockchain Intelligence Group’s regulator and training affairs, says, “This isn’t limited to cryptocurrency. It also pertains to any financial institution licensed by the BSA, as well as any consumer transactions they assist.”
Is this a partisan issue?
Considering specific interagency jurisdictional thresholds, space regulation has proven particularly difficult. The White House is set to announce an order detailing key targets to curb cryptocurrencies this week, according to reports. In 2021, the industry was also the subject of many congressional hearings, where crypto executives testified for the very first time on the benefits of virtual currencies and the hazards they entail, as well as the regulatory hole that exists. Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has advocated for broad cryptocurrency regulation, saying the assets “rife with scams, frauds, and misuse.”
The public opinion on crypto regulation is primarily divided along partisan lines as Republicans favor less rigorous regulations in order to avoid stifling innovation. Meanwhile, certain Democrats, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, have been vocal critics of the volatility that comes with crypto as well as lack of cybersecurity, notably in DeFi.
Crypto.com, a crypto exchange established.l in Singapore acknowledged last week that its site had been the target of a cyberattack. Crypto.com revealed unlawful withdrawals targeting the Bitcoin and Ethereum 483 users in a postmortem article on its website, with losses totaling more than $33 million, which the business claims has been refunded.
The Federal Reserve also released its so much anticipated discussion paper detailing vital info on the central bank digital currency for the United States The Fed emphasized the creative characteristics of virtual currencies while also emphasizing possible hazards to the country’s financial system, such as increased cyberthreats and privacy issues (see: US Federal Reserve Issues Report on Digital Dollar).
To prevent money laundering and terrorism financing, any CBDC design must address privacy and establish rigorous identification verification rules, according to the Fed. It is currently available for public feedback.