Biden Admin Officials To Host Crypto Policy Roundtable Next Month

In a surprising turn of events, President Joe Biden's administration is scheduled to attend a roundtable on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies this July in Washington

President Joe Biden’s administration will host a roundtable on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in early July in Washington, D.C., organized by Rep. Ro Khanna, according to a report by Axios.

Biden administration officials, lawmakers from both the House and the Senate, and billionaire Mark Cuban will attend the meeting, Axios reported, citing an unnamed source. The meeting will reportedly focus on discussing ways to support innovation in Bitcoin and the crypto ecosystem within the U.S.

The roundtable comes amid increasing scrutiny of the Biden administration’s stance on cryptocurrencies. In May, Biden vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have overturned a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) policy that critics said would have prevented banks from entering the cryptocurrency space and imposed厳しい capital requirements on crypto custodians. Biden said the bill would have undermined the SEC’s authority and harmed investors.

However, the administration has also taken some steps that have been seen as favorable to the cryptocurrency industry. In March, the Biden administration proposed a new tax reporting rule for cryptocurrency brokers that would have required them to report customer transactions to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The administration later withdrew the proposal following backlash from the cryptocurrency industry and some lawmakers.

The roundtable will also be held ahead of the November U.S. presidential elections, which some pundits believe will be decided by a razor-thin margin. The move suggests that Biden’s camp is increasingly recognizing the impact crypto-related matters could have on the presidential race.

His main political rival, Donald Trump, has made headlines for his enthusiastic support for Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining in recent months in his about-face. Besides his anti-CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) remarks, the ex-POTUS and presumptive Republican nominee accepts cryptocurrencies as donations for his campaign in a bid to court crypto-focused voters. Earlier this month, Trump boldly called himself the “crypto president” during a fundraiser to curry favor from crypto voters further. He has also vowed to put an end to the Biden administration’s slow boiling war against crypto.

Meanwhile, billionaire and crypto advocate Mark Cuban recently postulated that Gary Gensler’s anti-crypto maneuvers as chief of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could “literally cost Joe Biden the election”.

Biden has reportedly started discussions with cryptocurrency industry players about accepting crypto donations for his campaign through Coinbase Commerce. This move is undoubtedly a little too late for the President given his tenure in office, which has been marked by an onslaught against the burgeoning crypto industry.