Speaking to Bloomberg, unnamed people "familiar with the matter" have indicated the executive brand of the US Government is considering directing federal agencies to study cryptocurrencies and consider financial regulation, economic innovation and national security implications of this technology.
The executive order will seek to unify some agencies, such as the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and more, in order to determine how to deal with the rapidly growing digital asset space.
The jostle for power between regulating authorities has been a source of frustration for many in the USA. Some agencies, most notably the SEC led by Gary Gensler, have been downbeat on digital currencies and their long term viability. Other agencies, like the Treasury Department, have just shown a sad ignorance towards how digital currencies work.
Speaking at the Texas Blockchain Summit, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis expressed concern with the Treasury Department regarding their definition of Bitcoin in a proposed legislation:
The definition that was proposed showed a fundamental misunderstanding of Bitcoin and other digital assets
The comments came amid a recent landmark infrastructure bill which is currently being debated in Congress. Under the wording proposed by the Senate in August, 'brokers' would have to report any digital asset transaction worth over $10,000 to the IRS. The obvious problem was that many would meet the very broad definition of being a "broker" but would not be ordinarily considered in the real world to fulfil any kind of brokerage transaction, as it would include node operators and miners who, by virtue of how blockchains operate, have no access to the identity of transactions moving through the public network.
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