US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown are “trying to kill the entire crypto industry,” the Chamber of Digital Commerce said.
The US-based crypto advocacy group argues that lawmakers are spearheading an unprecedented attack on digital assets, citing Warren (D-Massachusetts) Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act.
The bill, which Warren first introduced in 2022 and then again last July, aims to bring the crypto industry into compliance with the same money laundering rules that apply to the traditional financial system. Among other things, it would extend the responsibilities of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), including Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements, to crypto wallet providers, miners, validators and other network participants.
In July, the potential legislation was referred to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, where Brown (D-Ohio) chairs.
This week, Perianne Boring, the founder and chief executive of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, wrote a letter to Brown urging lawmakers to scrap the bill.
The CEO said the potential legislation poses a “clear and present danger” to both national security and the economy.
“If this bill passes, hundreds of billions of dollars will be lost value to American startups and decimating the savings of countless Americans invested in this asset class legal. Moreover, this bill will ensure that we relinquish the remaining leading position in the digital world economy to China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, who are eagerly waiting to benefit from the perceived willingness to abdicate this responsibility.”
Boring compares the bill’s regulations to requiring an ink manufacturer to track every person who handles a single dollar bill printed with its ink.
“Just as tracking every user of a dollar bill would be untenable for an ink manufacturer, imposing similar requirements on blockchain entities such as digital asset miners and validators is equally unfeasible and detrimental to innovation.”
However, Warren has argued that the legislation is about closing loopholes.
“The Treasury Department makes clear that we need new laws to tackle the use of cryptocurrencies and enable terrorist groups, rogue states, drug lords, ransomware gangs and fraudsters to launder billions in stolen money, evade sanctions, run illegal weapons programs to finance and profit from devastating cyber attacks.”
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