Why some governments are trying to scare people away from using cryptocurrencies (2024)

Recent moves by Washington, and specifically by SEC Director Gary Gensler, with respect to the development of cryptocurrencies suggest an attitude that seems to coincide with a classic FUD strategy of creating fear, uncertainty and doubt among users.

After accusing Coinbase and Binance, the two main cryptocurrency exchanges, for unauthorized securities trading, an area that falls under the SEC’s remit, and correctly finding that Binance had breached all kinds of money laundering rules and was fined for doing so, the regulator’s attitude now seems to be to sit on its hands: it’s not going to dictate specific rules, and instead will try to hobble the development of the ecosystem whenever possible.

Calling a cryptocurrency a security, as opposed to a commodity, may make sense in the context of investments, which could be seen as equivalent to people buying the equivalent shares in a company but without complying with the proper regulations, but it is clearly stupid and meaningless if we are talking about a sufficiently consolidated cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.

At the same time, control over the activity of these exchanges is increasing: the number of information requests to Coinbase has tripled in the last three years, with the United States…