Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies including ethereum and XRP have rocketed higher since crashing to their 2022 lows (as president Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump are warned “there’s only one way to save the U.S. dollar”).
The bitcoin price has climbed back to its previous all-time high of around $70,000 per bitcoin—and could be poised to go “parabolic” after traders spotted a surprise price pattern—while ethereum, XRP and other cryptocurrencies are braced for a Wall Street earthquake of their own.
Now, as Trump and Biden hurtle toward a bitcoin showdown, a potentially game-changing bill with a surprise crypto provision has been passed by a Senate committee, which could be the most important U.S. crypto policy ever if it becomes law.
The U.S. Senate select committee on intelligence’s funding package was recently waved through with an almost unnoticed crypto provision that would force crypto companies to collect more information about users or face being caught up in sanctions designed to prevent terrorism financing.
The passage, spotted by eagle-eyed reporters at Coindesk, would reportedly “speed and automate the process to sanction ‘foreign digital asset transaction facilitators’—including crypto exchanges—that are linked to users who support terrorism groups.”
The Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) cleared the committee in a unanimous 17-0 vote though its crypto section wasn’t mentioned when senator Mark Warner, a Democratic lawmaker from Virginia and the committee’s chairman, announced the vote in a press release.
“This year’s bill enhances the IC’s [U.S. intelligence community] ability to identify and counter emerging technological threats posed by adversarial nations,” senator Warner wrote. “The IAA also designates foreign ransomware organizations as hostile cyber actors and ensures the IC has the tools it needs to counter economic coercion and illicit technology transfer.”
Bitcoin and crypto are often demanded by hackers as part of ransomware attacks.
However, crypto industry insiders polled by Coindesk say the provision is unlikely to survive the budget process.
“I think it likely does get zapped out of the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] process given the immediate push back from the industry,” Cody Carbone, chief police officer for the Digital Chamber, told Coindesk.
Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act known as Fit21 which split up responsibility for cryptocurrency regulation between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and was broadly supported by crypto companies and pro-crypto lobby groups.
The Biden administration has sought to soften its attitude toward bitcoin and crypto in recent weeks after 2024 White House hopeful Donald Trump pledged his support to the crypto industry.
Last week, Trump reportedly went on a crypto charm offensive during a Silicon Valley fundraiser hosted by investors David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, it was reported by Reuters.
The fundraiser, which sold top tickets for $250,000, was reportedly sold out and bagged Trump around $12 million.
“He said he would be the crypto president,” Trevor Traina, a San Francisco-based tech executive and former Trump ambassador to Austria, was quoted by the newswire, while Jacob Helberg, an adviser to data analytics company Palantir, said: “President Trump made clear that the Biden-Gensler crusade against crypto will grind to a halt within one hour of a second Trump administration,” referring to SEC chair Gary Gensler.
Trump has leaned into bitcoin and crypto in recent weeks after making millions from a series of crypto-based digital trading card non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and putting him starkly at odds with the Biden administrations anti-crypto stance. Trump declared support for crypto in late May and began accepting campaign donations in bitcoin, ethereum, solana, dogecoin and shiba inu.
“Crypto is such an obvious win,” Jason Calacanis, an investor who hosts the All In podcast alongside Sacks, Palihapitiya and David Friedberg, said on last week’s show, recorded ahead of the fundraiser.
© forbes
