Whenever the topic of Bitcoin regulation comes up, things often deteriorate rather quickly. That situation is no different where House Financial Services subcommittee meetings are concerned. Their most recent get-together raised a lot of questions and showed there is a massive bias toward cryptocurrencies.
The Subcommittee Hearing’s Purpose
On paper, the recent meeting of the House Financial Services subcommittee had positive intentions. The goal is to get an overview of the cryptocurrency landscape. based on that information, regulatory measures may be introduced in the future. Unfortunately, the members of this subcommittee are rather divided on cryptocurrencies altogether. It seems there is a very strong bias toward this form of money, which is not entirely surprising.
Representative Brad Sherman of California is convinced cryptocurrencies are a “crock”. He is not a fan of how people can make a lot of money from buying, selling, and trading cryptocurrencies. At the same time, most stock market traders make good money by sitting at home in their pajamas as well. It seems the bias against cryptocurrencies is mainly because it is cryptocurrency. An unregulated form of money that makes people millions is a thorn in the side of Sherman.
Airing these concerns during a subcommittee hearing is always positive, though. Everyone’s opinion matters when these groups get together. However, Sherman is not a big fan of the ICO business model either. In his opinion, ICOs are a “lie to the public” and a way to disguise unregulated IPOs. Again, this shows there is some need for regulation of sort sorts, albeit that is much easier said than done.
Regulation is Coming Eventually
Even though the bashing of Bitcoin is clearly visible, the regulatory discussions are far from over. Instead, we will see further subcommittee meetings to discuss the regulatory aspect of the “crypto craze”. Protecting investors is one of the main objects of this subcommittee. Things will move along rather slowly, though .The lack of understanding cryptocurrencies is a problem which is difficult to solve.
It seems a study on the ICO market will be published rather soon. Whether or not that study will be as biased as this subcommittee’s meeting, remains unknown. It is evident a ruleset needs to be put in place for both ICOs and the cryptocurrency at some point. What those rules will entail exactly, has yet to be determined. Once the report is published, the subcommittee will “move in” to establish some new guidelines.
Luckily, not everyone is as biased to cryptocurrencies. Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota is in favor of a hands-off approach, for the time being. Finding the balance between regulation and innovation is not all that easy. A mixed bag of responses from this House Financial Services subcommittee, with conflicting interests as well. All of this seems to indicate a unified regulation of cryptocurrency and ICOs is still far away.