US: the senator from Kansas withdraws his support for the anti-crypto bill advanced by Elizabeth Warren

Senator from Kansas Roger Marshall has chosen to stop supporting the anti-crypto law in the US “Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act”, previously proposed by Elizabeth Warren. This is a very important signal as it highlights the weaknesses of a potentially harmful bill for the cryptographic sector.

Do you think that Senator Marshall initially followed the drafting of the legislative bill together with Warren, only to distance himself from it later?

Let’s see all the details below.

Crypto and US: Elizabeth Warren’s bill proposal

In December 2022, Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced for the first time the anti-crypto bill in the US “Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act” (DAAMLA).

The objective of the proposal was to make the crypto sector more compliant with the current rules of the U.S. financial system.

The bill was indeed aimed at blocking any attempt of money laundering and financing of terrorism advanced with crypto.

In detail, at the center of Warren’s writing was the request for the extension of the responsibilities of the Bank Secrecy Act, with a tightening of KYC controls.

This includes stricter reporting obligations, in which crypto asset providers are required to communicate with the U.S. financial supervisory authorities.

A very controversial aspect of the DAAMLA mainly concerns the inclusion of miners and validators of other blockchains in the list of those adhering to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

This means that they too, if operating in the US territory, should indicate detailed data of the members who carry out the extraction operations. Often, in fact, the “virgin” BTC just mined are exploited for illicit purposes, as highlighted in a recent study by Chainalysis.

This proposal put forward by Elizabeth Warren has created quite a bit of tension in the US Senate, so much so that many have deemed it unconstitutional.

Furthermore, the cases described by you in the KYC control guide for financial operators are partly inapplicable given the decentralized nature of the blockchain technology.

That of Warren more than an opportunity to clean up the sector from illicit practices, seems rather an attempt to destabilize the digital asset sector.

Needless to say, in this context, the political orientation, close to the Democratic Party, of the American jurist plays a crucial role.

Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas withdraws his support for the law

Wednesday, July 24, Senator Roger Marshall unexpectedly decided to withdraw his support for the anti-crypto DAAMLA bill, supported in the US by his colleague Elizabeth Warren.

The political figure from Kansas, in a twist, was the first to withdraw support for the bill, highlighting an internal crisis among the democratici.

It appears at least strange that Marshall had been a supporter of the DAAMLA, having co-sponsored the work in 2022 directly with Elizabeth Warren.

His exit, confirmed by the official directory of Congress regarding legislation, raises several questions about the feasibility of the bill.

Perhaps the senator is aware that the proposal will never be accepted either in the Senate or in the House, given its unconstitutional characteristics.

In total there are still 18 senators who support the law Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act against the crypto industry.

Marshall is not the only one to have highlighted the limits and difficulties of applying this legislation. Several cryptographic organizations and individuals have criticized the proposal which is clearly aimed at undermining the crypto sector.

On February 20, for example, the Digital Chamber of Commerce urged the Senate Banking Committee not to consider the DAAMLA as it would slow down financial development in the US.

This law, if it came into force, could according to them:

“it would eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in value for US startups and decimate the savings of countless Americans”.

Just a week earlier, a group of 80 former military and national security officials of the United States government also asked lawmakers not to approve the DAAMLA.

In the letter, officials warned that the legislation would hinder law enforcement and increase national security concerns. The latter has been supported by Blockchain Association, which as an independent organization defends the interests of the crypto market.

The oligarchic attitude of Elizabeth Warren in US towards the crypto sector

The proposed DAAMLA law put forward in the US in 2022 is certainly not the only shot by Elizabeth Warren against the crypto sector.

It is now publicly known that the Democratic senator from Massachusetts feels a sense of disdain for digital assets.

According to his theories, repeatedly disseminated publicly, cryptocurrencies would be one of the main vectors of money laundering and financing of terrorism.

On these two points, Warren has leveraged various public debate occasions, referring to an ongoing emergency to be resolved.

During her political campaign last year, the senator asked her voters to even build an “anti-crypto army”.

The choice, obviously well-considered, of such words, can only highlight his biased stance towards a topic that would deserve statistical-mathematical objectivity.

At stake, in fact, are not only her selfish interests as a political figure, but above all the economic-financial ones of an entire nation like the US.

Recently, after facing the headwinds of the approval of Bitcoin ETFs, it has returned to the attack calling for the shut-down of the industry.

In a recent interview, he stated that the crypto sector should align with the rest of the US financial sector, precisely through his own bill.

Otherwise, it should be completely closed given the impossibility of cohesion with the traditional monetary system.

Recently, however, Elizabeth Warren does not seem to be doing well: after Biden’s exit from the election campaign, the figure of the democrats has been waning.

Furthermore, the Republican John Deaton, his main rival for the Senate seat in Massachusetts, is a strong supporter of Bitcoin. 80% of his wealth is actually invested in the orange coin.