Yesterday, during a US Senate hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren called for permanently eliminating the international fentanyl trade by blocking crypto payments at the source.
Warren’s theory refers to the fact that Chinese manufacturers find the inherent features of cryptocurrencies attractive, citing a study by Elliptic.
Let’s look at all the details of the news together.
Summary
Elizabeth Warren attacks crypto again by mentioning link to illicit fentanyl trade
US Senator Elizabeth Warren, known for her anti-crypto crusades, has made explicit the link between digital cryptocurrencies and international fentanyl dealing, calling for the issue to be treated with an iron fist.
The senior US official cited a study by Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, to highlight how more than 90 Chinese companies smuggle fentanyl precursor substances by accepting payments in cryptocurrencies, especially in Tether (USDT) or Bitcoin (BTC).
The substances shipped from China would generate a huge opioid market that would flow right into the United States, where about 69,000 people die each year from this type of drug.
Also appearing in support of Warren’s theory of crypto’s culpability in this matter was US Treasury Department Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes Elizabeth Rosenbergh stating:
“The reason they would find it tempting is the same reason other financial criminals would find it tempting, which is that there is an element of pseudonymity that they seek.”
According to the two officials, there is an urgent need to dismantle the fentanyl trade within the country, starting at the source and imposing tough regulations on cryptocurrency payments.
In particular, Warren suggested that her “Digital Asset-Anti-Money Laundering Act” could help eliminate the problem of fentanyl circulation in the US, which according to the DEA is a drug 100 times more potent than morphine.
The senator’s bill will be introduced in this congress and could create problems for the crypto industry in America.
Meanwhile, the presidential candidacy of lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr, grandson of former President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, could put a spoke in the wheels of Elizabeth Warren’s authoritarian ideas.
In fact, Kennedy has publicly come out in favor of Bitcoin and would like to accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the country.
The dystopian philosophy of the US senator
By now, it is well known that US Senator Elizabeth Warren has an aggressive attitude toward the cryptocurrency industry, having called it out several times by highlighting only the negative aspects and never praising the positive aspects of the underlying technology.
It is strange how Warren considers crypto assets to be responsible for fentanyl trafficking in the United States, without thinking about the role that Chinese companies play in this context.
Although cryptocurrencies have been banned many times in China, there are still those who manage to make illicit deals by accepting them as payments.
To solve the problem, all that would be required would be to attack the gateways and fiat onramp platforms that allow those companies to convert their crypto revenues, the proceeds of the illegal trade, into the local currency.
Moreover, it remains dystopian that Senator Warren never mentioned the role that the US dollar plays in America’s drug game.
While it remains true that it is not the medium that decrees the success or failure of the action itself, it remains interesting to note this aspect.
According to reports from Data Bridge Market Research (DBMR), the psychedelic drug market alone in the country, on which there has never been a connection to the crypto world, is worth $2.8 billion, with high growth prospects for the coming years.
Hence, why not talk about one dealing in the order of magnitude of BILLIONS of dollars and loudly attack another, that of fentanyl, where crypto payments of “only” $37.8 MILLION have been reported? (Chainalysis data).
The impression is that the senior US official has political interests in pursuing her anti-crypto campaign without taking the slightest interest in what are the real problems in the States.
Rather, Warren believes that blocking the country’s technological progress by disincentivizing American companies from doing business with blockchain and cryptocurrencies is the right choice at a time of severe crisis when labor market data are not reassuring.
Chapeau Senator.
