How the Biden Administration Is Approaching Crypto Regulation

Last November, digital assets reached a collective market cap of more than $3 trillion, marking the industry as an essential element of the global economy. To show how much crypto assets have permeated American society, a White House fact sheet states that more than 40 million Americans, which is 16% of the population, use cryptocurrencies to invest, trade, or make payments. However, there has been a lot of concern about how cryptocurrencies can be used to hide money, run illegal businesses, and abet corruption. Cryptocurrency has become even more critical because Russia tried to use it to get around sanctions from the United States and the European Union (EU) because it invaded Ukraine. Russia’s actions have made the need to regulate the crypto space even more significant. Heading Towards Cryptocurrency Adoption? Regulators and oversight bodies such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have spent the last few years bootstrapping existing laws to regulate the nascent crypto market. Unfortunately, the half measures have proven woefully inadequate in policing the rapidly growing industry. On March 9, 2022, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that was the most comprehensive way the U.S. government had ever tried to regulate crypto. The Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets doe...