Blockchain Association lobbies Biden’s team for better regulations
The top priority is helping the Treasury Chief understand that crypto goes beyond the financing of criminal enterprises, said Kristin Smith
Blockchain Association, the US-based blockchain and cryptocurrency advocacy group is working towards lobbying important figures from the Biden administration to advocate for more favourable regulations that can protect the interests of the consumers without hampering innovation in the industry.
With its list of members including crypto heavyweights like Circle, Binance US, Grayscale, and Kraken, Blockchain Association works towards achieving a unified voice of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry and collaborating with the American leadership to advocate for innovation.
In a statement to Fox Business, Kristin Smith, the executive director of the Association, explained that the group has either already met or is in the process of scheduling meetings with high-ranking White House officials who can severely impact the outcome of digital assets regulations in the country. This list of officials includes Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Deputy Secretary nominee and former BlackRock executive Wally Adeyemo, along with other representatives of the Treasury Department.
Addressing reports of Yellen’s comments that the primary utility of cryptocurrency is “illicit financing”, Smith explained that the main agenda behind these meetings is to assist the Treasury chief in understanding the core value of crypto networks. “Our number one priority is helping Yellen understand crypto goes beyond the financing of criminal enterprises,” Smith said.
Yellen has previously been criticised by the crypto community for calling Bitcoin “an extremely inefficient way of conduction transactions.” The Treasury Chief also speculated that the world’s number one cryptocurrency by market cap is “not widely used as a transaction mechanism.”
Despite her visible hostility towards cryptocurrency, Yellen has been open-minded about centralised DLTs. She stated that a digital dollar could offer “faster, safe, and cheaper payments” than the existing fiat currency in a statement last month.
However, Yellen’s anti-crypto stance has instigated top stakeholders of the industry to seek ways to reach the key people in the Treasury Department in the hopes of softening an incoming blow to crypto regulations. Adam Traidman, CEO of crypto wallet BRD, stated that crypto representatives are “trying to work as high up the Treasury food chain as we can.”
“We’re not opposed to regulation and compliance, but we need time to spur innovation and grease the skids for the adoption of crypto first,” Traidman added.
The CEO pointed out that the major concerns regarding crypto regulations are to protect wallets and crypto-to-crypto transactions. “One of our main goals is to carve out crypto to crypto transactions from most regulations. If crypto transfers have to meet wire transfer rules, that will harm the industry,” he explained.
