Brian Brooks: Biden officials hostile to crypto

Brian Brooks, former US bank regulator and current CEO of Bitfury, a crypto company, denounced Biden’s current leadership and federal regulatory agencies, calling them “openly hostile to crypto.” 

ICYMI: Former U.S. bank regulator says Biden officials ‘overtly hostile to crypto’https://t.co/1MaCDZj420

— The Block (@TheBlock__) October 12, 2022

The following remarks were delivered at a press conference in Washington of all places by the current Bitfury and former Binance.US and Coinbase executive:

“This is actually a political issue. The leadership in power right now is dedicated to restraining the mechanism if not destroying it, and a number of things I have heard, even in the last 24 hours in Washington, have convinced me of this.”

The remarks of Bitfury’s current CEO 

Brooks, now CEO of digital asset services company Bitfury, was the comptroller of the currency in the waning days of the Trump administration. Brooks posed his misgivings in the midst of an onstage interview at DC Fintech Week, a Washington conference hosted by Georgetown University’s Law Center.

Brooks refuted his theories by comparing the current state of the digital asset industry to the financial sector after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and Silicon Valley after the dotcom bubble burst. 

Brooks compared the collapse of Celsius, Terra and Three Arrows Capital to the economic meltdown caused by excessive leverage in some parts of the industry during the crisis, which he said represented a relatively small portion of the overall financial sector.

About the bankrupt crypto projects, Brooks states:

“It really doesn’t take long to blow up a financial market. The truth is that the entire financial crisis was caused by a very slight increase in delinquencies within Fannie Mae’s book. Those things accounted for perhaps two percent of the cryptocurrency market, and bitcoin was down 80 percent.”

Why Biden can be described as hostile to crypto

As early as September 2022, Joe Biden called for more rules for cryptocurrencies, which he said had become increasingly popular. 

The White House, listing a series of recommendations to be adopted to regulate cryptocurrencies, had said:

“Digital assets present potential opportunities to strengthen American leadership in the global financial system and remain a technological frontier, but they also pose real risks as demonstrated by recent events in the crypto markets.”

Indeed, according to Biden’s directives, it was necessary to aggressively pursue illegal practices in the industry, monitoring complaints so as to protect consumers and act against deceptive and abusive practices. In fact, the President of the United States still supports financial stability and pushes for responsible innovation. 

Finally, Joe Biden’s last executive order on digital assets was in March of this year. The executive order included accountability for digital assets and cryptocurrencies, mitigating risks from every angle: consumers, investors and businesses. 

Specifically, Biden’s concerns were about possible privacy and security impacts. Indeed, the growth of cryptocurrencies has had profound implications in the area of consumer and business protection, including privacy and data security, as well as in the area of national security and the ability to exercise human rights. 

Following these statements by Biden, Brooks’ comments, still echoed to this day, are logical and natural.