Andrew Yang, the 2020 Presidential Candidate Promises Clarity Over Crypto Regulatory

By Prashant Jha

Cryptocurrency has become the hottest cake in town lately, not just because of the number of traditional financial institutions and banks venturing into availing crypto services due to growing demand. Remember, cryptocurrency was invented to end the monopoly of these banks itself. Now, even the governments and politicians are openly promoting crypto and promising healthy regulation frameworks.

Andrew Yang, the 2020 democrats presidential candidate has promised clarity over the Bitcoin and other altcoin use in the country. Yang in his proposal says that the current state of federal and state laws are causing a big hurdle for the American digital asset market.

The regulatory bodies in the US have quite a passive stance towards the crypto assets and any firm operating or availing any crypto services need to obtain a license for operations from the regulators. The process was so complex that many New-York based crypto firms had to leave the city when the licensing was first introduced. Yang has called the current BitLicense as an onerous piece of regulation.

Yang made his views on the current state of regulations pretty clear, he said,

“investment in cryptocurrencies and digital assets has far outpaced our regulatory frameworks in the US. We should let investors, companies, and individuals know what the landscape and treatment will be moving forward to support innovation and development. The blockchain has vast potential”

Yang Already has a Plan in Place

Yang in the lead up to his presidential campaign has not only promised clarity on the crypto regulations but also has a plan on how he would do that. In order to solve the uncertainty of the crypto space, Yang has outlined a few things that he is planning to do,

• Define what a token is, and when it is a security (e.g., recognizing utility tokens)
• Define which federal agencies have regulatory power over the digital asset space
• Provide for consumer protections in the space
• Clarify the tax implications of owning, selling and trading digital assets
• Promote the nationwide adoption of recognition of protections afforded by a series LLC
• Preempt state regulations when possible to create one national framework

Yang sees the sponsors of the Token Taxonomy Act and Wyoming legislators as ideal partners in this endeavor, as he believes their models have worked.