Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at UK-based asset broker GlobalBlock, believes the Executive Order on crypto from US President Joe Biden might go either way. With the Biden administration set to release the order as early as February, the market is in disarray, seeing as no one knows whether the order will impact the burgeoning asset class positively or negatively.
According to Sotiriou, the US government is looking to regulate crypto as a matter of national security. He pointed out that the Biden administration is moving quickly to bring the crypto space under regulation because of multiple concerns.
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These include Bitcoin’s threat to the US dollar as a global reserve currency, difficulty in tracking crypto wealth for taxation purposes, the use of crypto in ransomware, and the lack of legal liability for Decentralised Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
Leaders have varying stances on crypto
Explaining why he is on the fence regarding this matter, Sotiriou said the US government has many leaders in powerful positions with varying outlooks on the crypto sector. While the government has several crypto critics, Sotiriou noted that the sector has also attracted some bullish leaders.
He gave the example of Arizona Senator Wendy Rogers, who introduced a Senate bill to make BTC (BTC/USD) legal tender in the state. Should this bill sail through, it would trigger other states to consider making BTC legal tender. However, Sotiriou expects it will face a lot of resistance.
The analyst also highlighted Texas’ case, whereby all three Gubernatorial candidates have shown support for crypto. The current Governor, Greg Abbott, recently invited Bitcoin miners into the state, hoping they will drive up electricity demand and force power providers to build more infrastructure, thus stabilizing the state’s power grid.
Senator Josh Harkins, who is also the Chairman of the Mississippi Senate Finance Committee, filed a bill to recognize Bitcoin in the Mississippi state code in the past week. Notably, this became the fourth crypto-related bill that Harkins believes should be added to the state’s legal framework.
Crypto has come a long way
Sotiriou concluded by saying,
Whether the motivations of these politicians could be questionable, the fact that Bitcoin is a part of the dialogue at all levels of government shows how far Bitcoin has come over just 13 years of existence. I expect every politician to have to take a stand on Bitcoin in the not-so-distant future.
This news comes after El Salvador became the first sovereign nation to embrace BTC as legal tender in the past year. While this decision met a lot of criticism, President Nayib Bukele seems committed to making things work.
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