It is a matter of National Security guys, especially after Vladimir Putin declared that he backs taxing and regulating Crypto mining despite the reluctance of the Central Bank of Russia that wants to completely ban cryptocurrencies in the country. With Russia being the third largest Bitcoin mining country right below the US and Kazakhstan, Putin knows he can't just ban crypto mining and expect everyone to comply - despite this country leaning more towards the authoritarian side of things.
What startles me the most is that the United States of America is not what it used to be in terms of world leadership. Don't get me wrong, this post is not political and even though I despise creepy Joe and everything he represents, I'm not here to talk trash about him.
But it startles me that the US had to wait until Putin declared his stance about crypto regulation and taxation before Biden declared his. Maybe I am not seeing the whole picture but come on, is the US Congress and President so insecure and doubtful of what they can pull off? Maybe they didn't want to stir the waters before the upcoming elections and found themselves cornered by Russia, being forced to make a statement about Crypto regulations. Or perhaps they wanted to see how the Eastern giant plans on facing Crypto and didn't want to declare war on Crypto and then realize that other nations could take advantage of this and take another path.
Who knows... their scheming is beyond my comprehension. What I do get out of this whole crapfest is that given that China has already banned crypto mining, alongside the problems that Kazakhstan faced recently regarding electricity costs - effectively making mining crypto into a not so profitable business - and how the US government most likely will handle poorly this whole taxation deal especially because US citizens are not easily tamed, Russia might end up winning this round and become the country that profits the most out of mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, especially if the government gets actively involved.
I don't think I like this scenario, not because I don't like Russia but because Bitcoin was meant to get rid of the man's grip, and governments digging their hands - openly, because we all know that there are already many rats among us - threatens the so called decentralized nature of BTC. Granted, Russia will not control a fraction of what is needed to actually make BTC a centralized asset, but since the CCP - that's the Chinese Communist Party - controls a fair amount of the BTC supply, governments holding wallets with thousands of BTC could become a problem in the future. Or maybe not a problem, maybe just a propagation of the current Status Quo.
The US and their plans to regulate Crypto
First of all, an executive order means that a proposed law doesn't need to go through congress approval to be in effect. This means that the president of the United States can regulate crypto however he - or the people behind - desires.
Joe Biden plans not only to regulate crypto, but will also include all digital assets and NFTs. The timing of this couldn't be worse, and it actually worries me a bit and I kind of feel bearish long term. Crypto is on a bad state, the wills are down, the drive is nowhere to be found, bulls are hiding and if rumor is true, the US will champion a world effort to coordinate regulations and taxations with countries where crypto is strong.
The US administration can't print more money, they need to extract it from somewhere in the form of taxes so that they can distribute it again - broadly speaking, this is just the general idea, it is actually way more complicated than this, but the idea is there -, so this sudden idea of regulating crypto as an executive order strikes me as a desperate attempt to salvage a situation Biden's administration has been cooking for a while now.
All of this is happening at the same time that the Federal Reserve of the USA is exploring the idea of a CBDC - we've talked about this, if you don't know this means a Central Bank Digital Currency go read my other posts on @leofinance.
Bear days ahead?
I'm not sure, I'm not *Saruman Pondering an orb while Grima watches, image that inspired the Ponder the orb meme, but I the way I see things, we are about to face a harsh crypto winter. I hope I have a proper job soon so I can buy more crypto and take advantage of weak hands.
Oh yes, I am still Bullish long term, I just thing that short term, we are heading towards a bumpy road. Do you have your Fiat ready to take this opportunity by the horns?