Price Preview December 14 - 20
US Treasury expected to announce draconian regulation but congressional opposition might be enough to delay.
Hello Ethereans!
On November 25th Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, Tweeted rumours that the US Treasury was planning to “rush out” new regulation targeting self-hosted crypto wallets before the end of the Trump administration.
The regulation, which is expected to require onerous identity checks for all users interacting with US crypto companies, was tipped to be announced at the end of last week but is yet to arrive.
The delay may be indicative of a rethink. Circle CEO, Jeremy Allaire, wrote to the US Treasury warning that the regulation would stifle private sector innovation and open the door to China, who is seeing enormous success in the early stages of their DCEP digital currency.
Allaire talked at length in this excellent episode from The Money Movement, admitting that identity and KYC was important but not from a traditional perspective. Instead, Allaire makes reference to decentralized identity (DID) as a means of addressing the current concerns of the US Treasury. While he admitted that the technology is not developed enough to solve problems today, it does show great promise and must be left free to innovate. Decentralized identity has been under development for a number of years now with Microsoft being one of the larger technology companies involved in its research.
Members of congress have also attempted to intervene with Republican, Warren Davidson also writing to the US Treasury requesting pause.
While US Treasury Secretary and long-time critic of crypto, Steve Mnuchin, may be desperate to put a hold on crypto’s rapid expansion before his time in this administration is up, a heavy-handed and technophobic piece of legislation may not be the legacy he wants to leave behind.
In this preview we look at:
Digital currency investment firm buys 100,000 ETH
Ethereum ETF launches in Canada
Stablecoin regulation heats up
Media roundup
We’ve launched our Discord server. Come and join the conversation!