It’s been just a few weeks since Democratic U.S. House Representative Brad Sherman took the floor to ask the legislative body to prohibit American citizens from purchasing cryptocurrencies.
Sherman’s argument is a very protectionist one – it suggests that allowing digital currencies to slowly replace the U.S. dollar as a hegemonic benchmark currency will effectively neuter U.S. foreign policy and decrease America’s standing in the world.
Sherman, in his public statement, also made a rather strange characterization of crypto fans, assumedly linking the love of crypto to the geopolitical ills he is warning about:
“An awful lot of our international power stems from the fact that the dollar is the standard unit of international finance and transactions,” Sherman reportedly said. “It is the announced purpose of the supporters of cryptocurrencies to take that power away from us.”
Sherman pointed to commodities like oil as examples of the dollar’s supremacy as a “clearing” currency.
Since then, Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, has skyrocketed to the tune of some 20%.
“Commentators thus remain highly bullish on the near-term future of Bitcoin,” writes Esther Kim this morning at Bitcoinist. “Anything – from dissatisfaction with fiat currency to high-profile naysayers calling for a ‘ban’ – could now be having the opposite effect on public sentiment.
It would seem that both individual investors and institutional investors are not taking the idea of a cryptocurrency ban seriously, especially since other legislators have argued for moving in the opposite direction, toward embracing and regulating coins.
In fact, new positive findings are coming out of additional research on Bitcoin with research firm Diar suggesting that large holders were quietly buying up Bitcoin even during the crypto winter late last year, and recent remarks by BitPay CCO Sonny Singh suggesting that as cryptocurrency becomes more practical, you’re going to see a big sea change toward digital currencies like Bitcoin.
“You’re starting to see that these currencies have real use cases around the world, and it’s making people really excited now because they can see the light at the end of the tunnel for these use cases,” Singh reportedly said.
Regulatory approval, a universal set of rules and real use cases may be able to really change the way cryptocurrencies are used and consolidate their utility in our lives and parts of the financial world. Keep an eye out for this type of change and what it will do to markets, through either geopolitical change or more direct means.
