A vocal anti-crypto lawmaker in the US is reportedly acknowledging that a ban on digital assets isn’t on the table in Congress right now.
The Los Angeles Times reports that crypto skeptic Congressman Brad Sherman wants to outlaw digital assets, but the House Democrat from California doesn’t think it will happen anytime soon.
“I don’t think we’re going to get [to a ban] anytime soon. Money for lobbying and money for campaign contributions works, or people wouldn’t do it; that’s why we haven’t banned crypto. We didn’t ban it at the beginning because we didn’t realize it was important, and we didn’t ban it now because there’s too much money and power behind it.”
Sherman has a long history of taking on crypto, including calling for a bill in 2019 to make it illegal for Americans to buy and sell crypto assets.
The lawmaker worries about digital asset investor protection, as well as crypto’s potential to weaken the dollar. Sherman also acknowledges it’s hard to stop people from spending money the way they want to spend it.
“It is hard to be running the subcommittee dedicated to investor protection in a country in which people want to wager on [meme coins]. Cryptocurrency is a meme you invest in, in the hopes that you can sell it to somebody else before it tanks. That’s the nice thing about a Ponzi scheme.”
