While many in Washington D.C. are hesitant to give Bitcoin their support, a Congressman recently took to Twitter to support this nascent space.
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Congressman Throws Weight Behind Bitcoin, Calls It “Sound Money”
On June 22nd, the Congressman of Ohio’s eighth district, Warren Davidson, tweeted the message seen below. “Sound Money is required to Defend Freedom,” Davidson wrote, including a message of Bitcoin on top of U.S. dollars.
#SoundMoney is required to #DefendFreedom. pic.twitter.com/XDF8rtHB33
— Warren Davidson (@WarrenDavidson) June 22, 2020
Many in the cryptocurrency space were quick to thank Davidson for this tweet. Meltem Demirors of CoinShares, Hodlonaut, and Brandon Quittem are among those that praised the Congressman for supporting Bitcoin.
This is far from the first time Davidson has publicly supported cryptocurrencies.
Davidson previously told Pierre Rochard and Michael Goldstein, two Bitcoin commentators and supporters, that Facebook should use BTC instead of Libra.
The politician also branded altcoins “shitcoins” in a Congressional hearing, further cementing his support for the leading cryptocurrency.
President Trump Isn’t a Fan
Davidson and others in Washington D.C. are supportive of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies but President Trump is not a fan. Far from.
According to the Washington Examiner, the U.S. leader was critical of the leading cryptocurrency as early as May of 2018. He told Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to “go after Bitcoin” during a May 2018 meeting on China.
This revelation that Trump has been against Bitcoin since 2018 was revealed in an excerpt from the book The Room Where It Happened. The book, by former national security advisor John Bolton, has yet to be published due to pressure from the Department of Justice.
Trump’s skepticism of cryptocurrencies is culminating in regulatory moves to control this nascent industry.
The White House’s budget proposal for the fiscal year of 2021 commented on crypto. It said that the United States Secret Service — which actually enforces many financial crimes — should be returned to the Treasury.
The proposal also suggested that this move will “create new efficiencies” in how the Secret Service enforces cryptocurrency-related crimes.
Secretary Steven Mnuchin also told CNBC in 2019:
“We’re looking at all of the crypto assets. We’re going to make sure we have a unified approach and my guess is that there are going to be more regulations that come out from all these agencies.”
He later said that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) will soon roll out “significant new requirements” for the cryptocurrency industry.
We want to make sure that technology moves forward but, on the other hand, we want to make sure that cryptocurrencies aren’t used for the equivalent of old Swiss secret number bank accounts.
Related Reading: Buying Bitcoin at $8k or $9k Won’t Matter in 2 Years: Fund Manager Explains
Featured Image from Shutterstock Tags: btcusd, xbtusd, btcusdt U.S. Congressman Davidson Says Bitcoin Is "Required to Defend Freedom"
