[ad_1]
Dan Roberts of Yahoo Finance joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss President Biden’s impact on cyrptocurrency and what his election means for the Bitcoin race.
Video transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SEANA SMITH: Crypto has certainly had a huge run. But of course, now the question is: what does a Biden administration mean for the future of space? We want to call on Dan Roberts, who as always is keeping up with the latest news on this for us.
And Dan, we heard from Janet Yellen earlier today, reporting concerns about crypto. But what do you think – I guess, how do you think a Biden administration will likely approach crypto?
AND ROBERTS: Yeah, well, let’s start with Janet Yellen, Seana. She mentioned today that she doesn’t like cryptocurrency being used for illicit financing. She has said this in the past. But of course, right now, given the surge in prices we’ve seen with crypto, there will be more attention than ever to his remarks.
She mentioned the fact that it is used for criminal purposes. Of course, the US dollar is sometimes also used for crime. She has said in the past, Janet Yellen has done, that she just isn’t a fan of cryptocurrency. She does not see it as legal tender or as a store of value. And that was a few years ago. Maybe that will change.
Separately from Yellen, which you might think she and her views would be bearish on how the Biden administration might handle crypto, you have Gary Gensler, who is Joe Biden’s choice for SEC chairman. And Gary Gensler is very sympathetic to cryptocurrency.
He is the former chairman of the CFTC, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. And he has testified before Congress several times on crypto and said positive things. He told Congress not to rush with the over-regulation of cryptocurrency and not to rush with the rules that govern this space.
He and some of his associates now – some of the people who are on Biden’s transition team – have also said they’ve been pushing for Facebook’s Libra token type of regulation as security. Now, cryptocurrencies won’t like the idea that it can be called security. But Gary Gensler and others have said Libra should somehow be nurtured and encouraged, and regulators should allow that to develop.
So you know, on the SEC side, it could be very good. And that’s going to come into play with two key things. First off, you have the Coinbase IPO. Could regulators delay this? We’ll see. And then, of course, the SEC charges just dropped the penultimate day of former SEC administration Jay Clayton against the company Ripple.
The SEC said it was an unregistered securities offering. Well, once Gary Gensler takes over, could that change. Could the SEC come to some sort of settlement with Ripple regarding the XRP token.
ADAM SHAPIRO: Hey Dan, real quick with just a minute left Ether actually broke out today, not so much Bitcoin. What is it about? Does everyone want crypto?
AND ROBERTS: Now, there are a couple of things here, Adam. I’m glad you asked the question. Yes, earlier this morning Ether hit its all-time high around 1400. You know, if you’ve recently recorded the trading volume, the actual trading volume, in terms of dollars going through Ethereum trades – this Ethereum blockchain, which is separate from the Bitcoin blockchain – has really heated up in recent weeks. And it’s neck and neck with the number of dollars traded on the Bitcoin blockchain in terms of the daily average.
Now, of course, with Bitcoin, you have a much higher price tag and a surge in prices in recent weeks. But look, I think every time you see a huge spike in Bitcoin, you’re going to see great activity with cryptocurrency number two. And that’s Ether.
You know, one thing I like to say is that as we know there are tens of thousands of these altcoins. But for now, the way things are going, the way businesses are acting, there is a kind of Bitcoin and there is Ethereum and then there is everything else. They are both. And those are the only two pieces that I would say with absolute certainty that will stick around for years to come. They’re not going anywhere.
SEANA SMITH: All right, Dan Roberts, thank you very much for explaining this to us.
[ad_2]
Source link