Biden Report: Most of Crypto Has 'No Fundamental Value'
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If you're trying to find something nice that President Joe Biden's annual Economic Report of the President to Congress had to say about crypto, here it is: "It is conceivable that some of their potential benefits may be realized in the future."
Of course, that wasn't talking about cryptocurrencies or even blockchain, but rather the distributed ledger technology that blockchains are built on.
One of nine sections in a report that also looked at topics like Supply Challenges in U.S. Labor Markets and Investing in Young Children's Care and Education, the 36-page reveal of the administration's perspective on crypto basically ran from skeptical to negative to threatening.
It was summed up thusly in the introduction:
Looking at "The Reality of Crypto Assets," the report takes roughly the same view as Warren Buffett, who said he wouldn't buy all the Bitcoin in the world for $25 because "it doesn't produce anything."
On the risk side, the report said:
One interesting comment was that "there has not yet been a systemic crisis caused by crypto assets, in part because they are not yet fully integrated with the rest of the financial system, giving policymakers time to act appropriately."
Which suggests that either the Biden administration — whose regulators have been doing everything they can to chase banks away from crypto clients — accepts that the currency crisis was really caused by banks' poor risk management, or that the report was already written and likely printed by the time crypto-focused Silvergate Bank closed its doors and regulators killed crypto friendly Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank over the last couple of weeks.