"We must crack down hard on those who try to abuse enthusiasm with fraud and manipulation" Chris Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.
But careful not to come off as a crack down on the cryptocurrency market in general, the Trump appointed Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton added “These warnings are not an effort to undermine the fostering of innovation through our capital markets – America was built on the ingenuity, vision and spirit of entrepreneurs who tackled old and new problems in new, innovative ways” .
Another surprisingly positive quote comes from Senator Mark Warner (D) - an early investor in the cell phone technology, said he sees a similarities between mobile phones then, and cryptocurrencies today. "The same kind of transformation is about to take place." Warner expressed he believes the possibility that cryptcurrencies will hit $20 trillion in value, saying "this rises potentially to the level of a systemically relevant event."
There was one set of challenges discussed - how to classify a cryptocurrency. A currency? A security? Something else entirely?
"What's so challenging about bitcoin is that it has characteristics of multiple different things" Giancarlo said.
Chairman Clayton said currently, they are not asking for any new laws - but in the future "We may be back with our friends from Treasury and the Fed to ask for additional legislation."
Markets appear to be in rebound following the news, with Bitcoin dipping into the $5900's briefly earlier - already at $7623 at time of publishing this article.
Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk
