Cryptocurrency

Despite venture capitalists, investment pundits, and other crypto firms alike all acknowledging that the jig is up, regulatory revolvers remain undeterred in their willingness to lend their reputations, expertise, credibility, and relationships to keep the crypto con alive.

Coinbase’s establishment of a new advisory council comprising former members of Congress is the latest example of the crypto industry’s embrace of Washington’s revolving door.

How two ‘Masters of Disaster’ helped Hollywood execs break the last writers strike

The March 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) — aside from foregrounding the hypocrisy of neoliberal pundits and libertarian venture capitalists alike — spotlighted the instability of the cryptocurrency industry’s most ostensibly stable offering. Hidden within the uncertainty of SVB’s fate following a $42 billion withdrawal frenzy was a similar crisis of confidence for Circle Internet Financial and its stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC).

As of now, Barr is assigned to investigate supervisory failures that occurred under his watch featuring a bank that catered in particular to the crypto and fintech industries which Barr was so active in immediately prior to revolving back into government. Barr is a walking conflict of interest. His central role in the investigation is damning

The Bipartisan Group That Once Defended Crypto Firms From SEC Investigations May Have Gone Silent In Recent Months, But Their Crypto Loyalties Remain.

The media must stop treating Summers as an impartial expert and recognize how he uses his status in the economic media to provide credibility to corporations.

Considering how much of the financial press eagerly solicits Summers’ take on every imaginable economics topic, it’s bizarre that no reporters have gotten his thoughts about his involvement in this crumbling company, and the asset class it promotes.

The FTX disaster should be all the impetus needed to kill off any new crypto industry–approved legislation. Instead, we need Congress to provide material support for financial regulators in the form of increased appropriations to guard against the next collapse. Much of the crypto industry is already subject to laws—the very ones that the SEC seeks to enforce and that the crypto industry broadly (not just Sam Bankman-Fried) seeks to evade by reducing the SEC’s jurisdiction ex post facto. Both the CFTC and SEC urgently need funds to fulfill their mandates. Crypto stretches these needs even further, but the need has existed for years. For decades, financial crimes have too often gone unpunished. This wasn’t for a lack of rules, but a lack of will, funds, and people willing to enforce them. Crypto doesn’t need special treatment, it needs to face the music.

At a critical juncture such as this where the industry seeks kid-glove treatment from regulators, backgrounds such as Harris’s should be disqualifying.