US Senator Labels Cryptocurrency As A New Threat, Calls For Regulation

Elizabeth Warren, a United States Senator has voiced her concerns about the role of cryptocurrency at large and the threat it poses in the global landscape while stressing the need for a better regulation.

US Senator Calls Cryptocurrency A Rising Threat

A pseudomynous user on X (formerly Twitter) recently took to the social media platform to share the US senator’s opposition to cryptocurrency. The X post was accompanied by a short video of Warren’s interview on CNBC’s Squawkbox Newsmaker.

In the interview, Warren stated that “there is a new threat out there, and it is crypto.” The senator’s assertion is apparently due to the risk of criminal activities that cryptocurrency poses.

Senator Warren’s viewpoint is consistent with the more general concern regarding the unregulated nature of cryptocurrencies. According to her, it is used for several illicit activities all around the world. 

She further highlighted several ways that crypto is currently being used wrongly. These include terrorist financing, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

Elizabeth Warren stated:

There’s a new threat out there, it’s crypto,” and “it is being used for terrorist financing, drug trafficking, and North Korea is using it to pay for about half of its nuclear weapons program.

Despite the fact that the US senator believes crypto sparks illicit utilization, it is still way less than that of fiat currencies. The unlawful activities linked with crypto are over 100 times lesser in comparison to fiat currencies.

The illegal activities involved in crypto make up less than 1% of the trillions of transactions every year. Meanwhile, every year, over $3.2 trillion worth of illicit activities are involved in fiat currencies like the US dollar. 

When Warren was asked about this comparison, she stated that they would apply more secure rules and reinforcements to the illegal activities involved in fiat. 

However, she asserted that this does not stop terrorists from using crypto to finance their operations. In addition, she believes that the rules that apply to other assets should also be applied to cryptocurrency assets. 

JPMorgan Chase CEO’s Opposition

Elizabeth Warren is not the only one who has expressed deep opposition to cryptocurrency lately. JPMorgan‘s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jamie Dimon has also voiced his concerns about its legitimacy and regulation.

In a Wednesday hearing, the CEO was seen slamming crypto, claiming that criminal activities are the true use case for it. This is because of its swift and anonymous nature of performing transactions on both smaller and larger scales.

Dimon also asserted that he has never considered crypto as something he would support. Furthermore, he stated that he would “close it down” if he was capable of doing such.

US Senator Warren also claimed that the government can no longer allow this to continue, seemingly aiming for total regulation of the crypto industry.

Featured image from iStock, chart by Tradingview.com