A lawyer’s exhibit on the challenges facing the Bitcoin and Crypto sector

• Lawyer Scott Johnson alleged that despite recent approvals of Ethereum spot ETFs, the Biden government remains opposed to cryptocurrencies.
• He says Biden is working on Operation Chokepoint 2.0, in which he will use enforcement agencies like the OCC and SEC to crack down on cryptocurrency exchanges and traders.

As the US elections approach, the crypto industry is closely watching the two main candidates – Donald Trump and Joe Biden – for their positioning in digital assets. Although he has been opposed to cryptocurrencies since taking office, Biden has been building momentum in an attempt to appeal to young voters who tend to be supporters of Bitcoin. However, according to some market observers, this is all fiction and if he is re-elected, he will destroy the industry.

In a lengthy post on X, lawyer Scott Johnson described the Biden administration’s actions against cryptocurrencies over the past four years, with most of them taking place in the last year. The lawyer, who previously worked at global law firm Davis Polk and Barclays Investment Bank, concluded that Biden is ready to destroy any company or developer that stands in the way of his anti-Bitcoin agenda.

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What the Dems/Biden admin is STILL doing:

– The OCC refuses to enforce the Brian Brooks “Fair Access” banking rule, which prohibits federally chartered banks from denying financial services, such as lending to potential customers, for political or ideological reasons.
– Enforcement actions against…

— Scott Johnsson (@SGJohnsson) May 30, 2024

One of Biden’s biggest threats to cryptocurrencies came from Gary Gensler and the SEC. As Johnson noted, the agency has taken enforcement actions against dozens of crypto companies, from Coinbase to Binance to Kraken, “based on an unimaginably expansive definition of security and without clear guidance.”

Additionally, the SEC issued Wells notices against Consensys, Paxos, Uniswap Labs and others, as reported by Crypto News Flash. The agency also included DeFi in its dealer policies without “faithfully complying with the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA).”

The FDIC, Federal Reserve, Treasury, IRS and Department of Justice have also become part of Biden’s anti-crypto state machine. As Johnson noted, the Treasury introduced provisions into mandatory legislation that even Congress did not have time to debate to expand the definition of “intermediary.” The Department of Justice, for its part, cracked down on mixers and arrested the creators of Tornado Cash.

Biden has also proposed imposing taxes on cryptocurrency miners, even though the United States has the world’s largest mining industry, which provides thousands of jobs that previously went to China.

And then there is OCC; although the agency was cryptocurrency friendly under Brian Brooks, there has been a significant change. The OCC has so far refused to implement the “fair access” banking rule that Brooks proposed while at the helm, which would have prohibited any chartered bank from refusing to serve customers based on political or ideological differences.

Despite the blatant anti-crypto moves, those closest to Biden’s camp say he is becoming more friendly to the industry. Sources told one news outlet that the president is reaching out to industry players for advice and guidance on “continuing the crypto community and crypto policy.”

With the election just five months away, Biden is urging the crypto community to buck Trump’s rising popularity, but it may be too little too late.