In view of the presidential elections in November in the USA, President Joe Biden seems to have changed his mind about crypto.
In fact, during the course of this 2024, the tone of his statements on the matter, and the actions taken by his administration, seem to have definitely changed.
The phase before the last USA elections: Biden and the relationship with crypto
In reality, in the first two years of the Biden administration, from the beginning of 2021 to the end of 2022, the attitude towards criptovalute appeared quite favorable.
For example, in March 2022 Biden signed a first executive order on cryptocurrencies to establish a first federal strategy on digital assets in the USA.
In parallel with the United States Congress, some senators were drafting a bill aimed at regulating the crypto sector.
However, this first phase was a result of the consensus that the sector had obtained in 2021 thanks to the last great bull run, but it was largely destined to disappear.
The second phase
In fact, starting from May 2022, that is when that famous sequence of failures triggered by the Terra/Luna ecosystem and concluded in November with FTX began, the consensus dropped and the Biden administration seemed to have changed its mind.
His government at that point started to impose stricter rules on crypto, and the crypto regulation in the Senate stalled.
This second phase has been characterized by an all-out fight by the SEC against cryptocurrencies, often ending in real defeats.
Moreover, it should not be forgotten that when the FTX scandal emerged, it was revealed that many US politicians, especially Democrats, had received donations from Sam Bankman-Fried with funds taken from the users of the exchange.
At that point, it was inevitable that the democrats, to which Biden also belongs, would try to distance themselves from that world.
With the conviction of SBF in 2024, however, things have changed.
The third phase
In the last 12 months, three things have happened that seem to have led the democratic administration of Joe Biden to change its mind.
The first was the defeat in court of the SEC against XRP. Many thought that the agency could have won that case, but from that moment on, the entire smokescreen built by the SEC around the crypto sector began to fall.
Subsequently, the SEC lost another legal battle, the one for spot Bitcoin ETFs, and since these effectively landed on the stock exchange, in January of this year, everything started to change regarding the relationship between the USA and the crypto markets.
Finally, the conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried for fraud has put a stone over the FTX affair.
The electoral propaganda
A quel punto erano state poste le basi per un’ulteriore svolta della politica democratica dell’amministrazione Biden nei confronti delle criptovalute. Il resto lo ha fatto la campagna elettorale.
At that point, the foundations had been laid for a further shift in the democratic policy of the Biden administration towards cryptocurrencies. The rest was done by the election campaign.
Biden starts as the underdog against his opponent Donald Trump, who moreover has openly sided in favor of cryptocurrencies.
For Biden, the risk was to leave all the votes of the bitcoiner and the US crypto enthusiasts to the opponent.
Evidently, the democrats realized that, in the midst of a bullrun, more votes were lost by taking a stand against cryptocurrencies than were gained by attacking the crypto markets.
E così, anche in seguito alle prese di posizioni pubbliche sempre più esplicitamente favorevoli di Donald Trump, Biden sembra davvero aver cambiato idea.
The turning point during the USA elections: Biden changes his mind on crypto
In particular, in the last two weeks, Biden’s election campaign seems to have even started to directly address the operators in the crypto sector to obtain indications on the community and the policies of the sector.
Sebbene queste siano solo indiscrezioni provenienti da fonti anonime, queste riferiscono un significativo cambiamento di tono da parte dell’amministrazione democratica di Joe Biden verso il settore crypto, tanto da far trasparire addirittura una possibile volontà di comprendere gli asset digitali e la loro community.
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Moreover, a few days ago Biden expressed his opposition to the new crypto regulation under discussion in the House, and this seems to have generated a negative reaction that at this moment the presidential candidate cannot afford to endure.
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And so about two weeks ago the Biden administration began reaching out to the main US crypto operators, likely imposing on the SEC to approve the spot Ethereum ETFs despite the agency being against it.
It should be noted, however, that this opening is leaving several crypto operators skeptical, also because both Biden and Trump have changed their minds several times over the years, thus proving to be unreliable from this point of view.
Now, acknowledging that during the election campaign and in the midst of a bullrun all the main presidential candidates seem favorable to the crypto sector, we will have to wait for the conclusion of the elections and the bullrun to understand what the real intentions are, beyond mere electoral propaganda which is made up of promises and not necessarily concrete actions.