- Bitcoin has become a political football between the U.S. and Russia
- Russian president Vladmir Putin is thought to be open to Bitcoin and crypto mining and usage in the country
- U.S. president Joe Biden may respond with an executive order regarding crypto regulation
Bitcoin has seen itself become a political football after the leaders of Russia and the U.S. used it to sound off against one another. Russian president Vladmir Putin and U.S. president Joe Biden used the cryptocurrency to bare teeth against one another, with Biden calling for emergency powers to regulate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies just hours after Putin said that he would welcome regulated Bitcoin mining in the country. The two countries are locked in a tense conflict over Russia’s military buildup on the border of Ukraine, and it seems that Bitcoin has now been dragged into the ideological battle.
Russia Flip Flops Over Bitcoin Ban
The Russian Central Bank first dragged Bitcoin into the war of words last week when it called for a ban on cryptocurrency usage and mining in the country, a move that was somewhat undermined by the Russian Ministry of Finance who objected and put forward its own plan which included regulating the cryptocurrency space just days later.
President Putin joined the party yesterday by reportedly backing the regulatory approach, supposedly welcoming Bitcoin mining in the country, which seemingly put the U.S. on high alert. A report on the potential regulation of cryptocurrencies has been expected for some time, but news broke overnight that the Biden administration is now considering executive action that will task federal agencies with regulating digital assets “as a matter of national security” according to Barron’s.
Biden to Respond With Executive Order?
The timing of this announcement is not thought to be coincidental, with Barron’s stating that the U.S. is seemingly worried about the “economic implications for national security” of Russia allowing the crypto sector to establish itself.
The U.S. only has itself to blame for rushing at the last minute to regulate cryptocurrencies, with the three administrations that have been in place since Bitcoin’s launch in 2009 simply kicking the can down the road and passing it onto someone else.
This has resulted in a patchwork of differing state-to-state regulations and has left the crypto industry in a state of limbo regarding the legality. The worry is now that the Biden administration will panic and impose harsher sanctions than they otherwise would have done in response to Putin’s softer approach to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
