The Senate Banking Committee convened another Congressional hearing today about the FTX implosion titled, “Crypto Crash: Why the FTX Bubble Burst and the Harm to Consumers”.
See the video of the hearing.
Yesterday’s House Financial Services Committee hearing on FTX was hard to top with the current CEO of FTX delivering an indictment of the past CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), his company’s past performance and even the Bahamian government.
Chair and Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D, OH) opening statement did not hesitate to address his extreme skepticism of crypto with nothing redeeming to say about the digital currency industry and blockchain technology. He added, “Crypto doesn’t get a free pass because it’s shiny and bright.”
National security, Facebook’s Libra, terrorist financing and more were examples of crypto’s effects that had metastasized for Sen. Brown into a global blight.
Conversely, Ranking Member Sen. Toomey (R, PA) sought to differentiate between the alleged fraud of FTX and the software, code and innovation activating cryptocurrency today.
Sen. Toomey chided those who wanted to stop crypto saying that it cannot be and, in fact, represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the technology. He suggested that those who call for not addressing crypto with legislation at all are misguided. He promoted his own Stablecoin Transparency Act as an important step in providing guardrails for crypto’s growth, let alone the use of blockchain technology.
Continue reading “Senate’s FTX Hearing Highlights Fraud Vs Crypto Skeptic Debate”