In an investor call for July 2020, Grayscale CEO expressed its certainty of the inability of regulators to ban Bitcoin as a result of the increasing support from citizens, investors, and policymakers.
Bitcoin is the result of a decentralized blockchain network and it would be difficult to ban it directly. It could be regulated by restricting its use or imposing penalties on parties that deal with the network, but these laws would likely be hard to enforce.
Grayscale CEO Barry Silbert mentioned the topic with the company’s investors and shared his optimism regarding the token.
“For the first time ever, we are past the ‘ban bitcoin’ perceived risk. There’s enough support in DC from policymakers and regulators that Bitcoin has a right to exist and ultimately you can’t shut it down”, said Mr Silbert.
Despite this, many Bitcoin critics have held to the theory that the most popular cryptocurrency would eventually be banned in the US with a domino effect impacting altcoins and other countries as a result.
Interest in cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, and digital currencies is on the rise as a result of socio-economic turmoil and the Covid-19 pandemic, and American regulators are paying more attention to Bitcoin than ever.
Bitcoin and other tokens are likely here for good
Big personalities in the financial world have been vocal about their lack of faith in Bitcoin and their desire to see it banned. Economist Nouriel Roubini and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan have both been critical of decentralised currency.
Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), the Chairman for the Senate Banking Committee, referred to a possible Bitcoin ban in these terms,
“If the United States were to decide — and I’m not saying that it should — if the United States were to decide we don’t want cryptocurrency to happen in the United States and tried to ban it, I’m pretty confident we couldn’t succeed in doing that because this is a global innovation”.
With recent events like Coinbases’ possible Initial Public Offering (IPO) and governments around the world moving toward the use of Digital Currencies, the original position of the American government has seen a shift to a more accepting stance.
One other aspect that the US government doesn’t seem to be considering is how the lack of firm crypto regulations is hurting blockchain development in the USA. Other nations like Singapore have been able to attract many crypto and blockchain projects, and lots of investors as well.
If the US doesn’t make similar efforts, it may end up being a step behind in the blockchain development space for years to come.