Crypto Community Takes a Witty Swipe at Warren

Photo - Crypto Community Takes a Witty Swipe at Warren
As the US continues to tighten its grip on crypto, some have decided to take a witty swipe at the regulators.
“If you work in crypto, you are going to hell. I stand with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as part of her anti-crypto army, in condemning this villainous industry chock full of crooks, bastards and fools waiting to be separated from their money.” 
This is the opening line of an article by  Daniel Kuhn.

At first it sounds baffling as Kuhn is a well-known crypto commentator. However, after reading about the need to tackle “grift and crime rampant throughout crypto” which is “comical and villainous” a.k.a “comically villainous”, it becomes apparent that this is a sarcastic piece. And it has a very clear point to it: to mock Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Kuhn says that “he’d oppose cash if it were created today for the same reasons as crypto” since they both don’t meet the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) – “a much needed and highly effective regulation” that the US wouldn’t be able to exist without it. 

He goes on to state that “no crypto exchange performs standard know-your-customer (KYC) checks or works with on-chain analytics companies to monitor for illicit activity or terrorist financing, the entire blockchain sector is simply a big black box presumably filled with fraud.” Why? Because Senator Warren “wrote a letter to Congress saying so.”

Likewise, he says that crypto is completely opaque because “what else would publicly verifiable and immutable ledgers be used for?”, adding that  if you are in “crypto or into blockchain at all today, you are likely an enemy of the state. I will die on this hill.”

Having enough

Such a strong sarcastic piece shows the extent to which the crypto community has become increasingly tired and annoyed by the American regulators’ stance.

From US SEC chairman Gary Gensler who decided to sue Coinbase, Binance and others, the epic court-drama with Ripple to continuous discussions as to how “bad” and “dangerous” cryptocurrencies and blockchain are, the point has now become boiling. 

The reason for this is understandable. Many of the legislators – due to age or simple ignorance (or both) – seem to be unwilling to understand the crypto domain. This is likely the case with Warren who focuses on the negative case uses of crypto, quoting the funding for HAMAS, the terrorist organization that attacked Israel on Oct.7, 2023. 

According to the Tel Aviv-based crypto analytics and software firm BitOK, between August 2021 and June 2023 Hamas received $41 million.

However, focusing only on negative use cases is plain wrong. Crypto and stablecoins have proved to have a very real significance for many people worldwide. To some, they are a method of evading inflation while others are expediting transactions so that they can reach the other party within minutes, not days. This was, for example, highlighted in our interview with Tron.

Such an avid anti-crypto stance in the US will likely end up driving out many companies out of the country – and with it the technology too. And that’s a real threat, which explains why such witty articles are being written.

Previously, GN Crypto reported that Gensler suggests a reevaluation of Bitcoin ETFs.