Senator ‘pretty confident’ the US can’t ban Bitcoin

During a US Congress hearing this week, Senator Mike Crapo said he was “pretty confident” that the US can’t ban Bitcoin, even if it wanted to.

On Tuesday, Congress held a hearing to discuss blockchain and cryptocurrency regulation, in which Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire testified in a bid to get the US to properly regulate the technology without inhibiting innovation.

During the hearing, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo shared his belief that the US could not succeed in banning Bitcoin.

As reported by Forbes, he said: “If the United States were to decide – which I’m not saying it should – if the United States were to decide we don’t want cryptocurrency to happen in the United States and tried to ban it, I’m pretty confident we wouldn’t succeed in doing that because this is global innovation.”

Allaire responded: “It exists on the internet. It’s open source software. Anyone can implement it. It runs wherever the internet runs. And these cryptocurrencies have a monetary policy where these assets are algorithmically generated… that is a challenge that every government in the world now faces.”

Allaire attended the hearing to implore the US to properly address crypto and blockchain regulation because he has concerns that if it does not, it will fall behind the rest of the world.

He said: “Without a sound, pragmatic, and agile national policy framework for digital assets, I am concerned the United States will not be the world’s leader in this critical new technology.”

Interested in reading more about the hearing on blockchain and cryptocurrency regulation? Discover more about Jeremy Allaire’s testimony which he presented to Congress.