For the younger crowd that might read this, they might not understand “pulling the football away” so here is where that phrase comes from.

The US Treasury, the Biden Administration, and the Congress (Democratic-led don’t forget) just played Lucy to the cryptocurrency industry.

Fred Wilson opined how happy he was with the progress of crypto regulation talks the other day.  Fred didn’t realize the sausage wasn’t made yet.  What Democrats like Fred don’t see is that regulation isn’t used to make an industry better or more efficient.  It’s used to eliminate competitors, and most importantly to increase government power.

I recall doing legislation when I was on the CME Board.  Congress snuck in a transaction tax that had to be eliminated literally in the last minute before it was passed back in 2000.

a16z, a huge VC fund, put out a fact sheet on the legislation.  This was good only because 99% of Congress has no idea what crypto even is.  Instead, all branches of government pattern matched and tried to force crypto into a corner it doesn’t belong in.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz had it right.  Do nothing.  Let it breathe.  The Lummis/Wyden/Toomey bill was the compromise bill that should have been passed in the pork-filled infrastructure bill, which is a bad bill anyway.

The US Treasury was having none of that, and neither was Biden.  They want more tax dollars wherever they can find them.  The damage might be able to be fixed, but lines in the (Read more...)