President Biden Signs Executive Order Detailing The Future Of Crypto Regulation

United States President Joe Biden has issued an executive order directing the government to investigate the dangers and advantages of cryptocurrencies. The crypto community has been awaiting this day for a long time because of mounting regulatory anxiety about the embryonic digital asset market that has dominated the world for several years now.

A house divided

There have been allegations of a schism between White House officials and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen which was reportedly causing policy delays. On Wednesday this past week, the order was nevertheless officially signed. As per a White House fact sheet, it calls on federal agencies to take a uniform approach to digital asset regulation and monitoring.

With the rising popularity of the crypto industry, many had predicted that such an order was indeed inevitable, and that if the United States wanted to maintain any kind of dominance in the world of financial technology, a regulatory approach instead of a blanket ban (which has repeatedly been the preferred solution in the past by organizations such as the SEC) would have to be adopted.

Brad Garlinghouse of Ripple had gone out of his way to tweet that the Biden administration should be appreciated as they have taken the initiative and are actively trying to understand the potential and possible use-cases of cryptocurrencies rather than outright rejecting them.

What does the order include?

Consumer and investor protection, financial stability, illegal activity, U.S. competitiveness on a global scale, financial inclusion, and responsible innovation will be the emphasis of the measures outlined in the aforementioned executive order.

Consumer protection in particular is a key component of the directive. There have been several reports of investors succumbing to crypto scams or losing large quantities of money as a result of cyberattacks on exchanges or users. The Biden administration has thus asked the Treasury to examine and make crypto policy suggestions. It also requests that authorities provide adequate monitoring and protection against any systemic financial risks presented by virtual assets to help the government in terms of regulatory efforts going forward.