Elizabeth Warren
Add An Item To Elizabeth Warren's Record
Elizabeth Warren's Record on Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, and Blockchain
- 8/16/2021, 9:28:58 PM
Negative. +1
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to assess the effect of cryptocurrency exchanges on U.S. financial markets and the risks they could pose to consumers. In a letter released Thursday, Warren asked SEC Chairman Gary Gensler to explain if cryptocurrency exchanges operate in a safe and efficient way, and what regulatory action might be necessary to protect investors. The letter included the following quotes, implying the need for tougher regulations from the SEC in the industry: "While demand for cryptocurrencies and the use of cryptocurrency exchanges have skyrocketed, the lack of common-sense regulations has left ordinary investors at the mercy of manipulators and fraudsters." "The SEC must use its full authority to address these risks, and Congress must also step up to close these regulatory gaps and ensure that every investor has access to a safe cryptocurrency marketplace" “The harms to consumers as a result of this under-regulated market are real and continue to proliferate in the absence of effective SEC regulations.”
Reference LinkSubmitted By: Anonymous - 8/16/2021, 9:18:22 PM
Negative. +1
"In his response to my letter, @GaryGensler says cryptocurrency platforms lack adequate protections for investors. @SECGov needs to take action wherever it can, and I’m going to make sure that Congress steps up, too."
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Reference LinkSubmitted By: Anonymous - 8/16/2021, 9:01:46 PM
Negative. +1
In an October 2018 hearing titled "EXPLORING THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES SURROUNDING THE CRYPTOCURRENCY AND BLOCKCHAIN ECOSYSTEM" Sen. Warren asked a question to Dr. Roubini, implying that cryptocurrencies were not "decentralized": "Now, one argument I often hear is that cryptocurrencies are decentralized, that anyone can mine new currency, unlike our current system, which relies on a central bank to perform that function. Dr. Roubini, I know you are a skeptic of that claim. Could you just say a word about why?" She asked a follow up question, implying that cryptocurrencies were "easy to steal": "I want to ask about another one, and we will see if we can get these together because I want to ask Mr. Van Valkenburgh, according to reports, more than $1.1 billion of cryptocurrency was stolen in the first half of 2018. Why is cryptocurrency so easy to steal?"
Reference LinkSubmitted By: Anonymous - 8/16/2021, 8:31:01 PM
Negative. +1
In an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box" in March 2021 Sen. Warren suggested Bitcoin "is speculative in nature and going to end badly."
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Reference LinkSubmitted By: Anonymous - 8/16/2021, 8:12:30 PM
Negative. +1
Sen. Warren suggests that the cryptocurrency ecosystem could be a systemic risk to the global financial system, by comparing them to money market accounts in an interview with Bloomberg TV: "It actually could jeopardize the system. So do you remember money markets? Yeah, back in 2006, 2007, 2008 and how much money flooded into money markets because the banks were paying like nothing in interest on money and on savings accounts. And the money markets were saying, hey, put your money over here. We'll pay a little more and give you the benefits of a checking account. And then the crash came and folks wanted to withdraw their money from those money markets. And we have one of two choices as a as a federal government as a nation and that was either let the money markets crash and drag down the entire financial system, because they had become huge, or force the taxpayer to back up those money markets so that they didn't take down the economy. You're one of the same kind of risk right now with crypto. The bigger it gets and the more it stays outside the financial system, something goes wrong, there's a run on crypto, there's a problem elsewhere in the economy. I don't want the US taxpayer to be the one who gets called on to back up another financial system again."
Reference LinkSubmitted By: Anonymous - 8/16/2021, 7:42:27 PM
Negative. +1
Cryptocurrency is the wild west of our financial system and desperately needs rules of the road to protect investors and our economy. I’m glad SEC Chair @GaryGensler agrees, and I’m going to keep pushing our regulators to act.
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Reference LinkSubmitted By: Anonymous - 8/16/2021, 7:41:12 PM
Negative. +1
From: Transcripts: Building A Stronger Financial System: Opportunities of a Central Bank Digital Currency U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Economic Policy Wednesday, June 9, 2021 Senator Warren: We've talked a lot today about the dangers that cryptocurrencies pose to our economy. We've talked about the ripoffs, the instability, the extent to which they are used to help criminals with cyberattacks like the attack on the Colonial Pipeline and JBS. But there's another piece too: the adverse environmental impacts of the computing activity used to mint many of these digital currencies in the first place. Bitcoin consumes more energy than entire countries and it is projected to consume as much energy as all the data centers in the whole world this year. One bitcoin transaction - a single purchase, sale, or transfer - uses the same amount of electricity as the typical U.S. household uses in more than a month. Senator Warren: So it's built right into it. That there are computers all over the world right now spitting out random numbers around the clock, in a competition to try to solve a useless puzzle and win the bitcoin reward. And, the amount of computational power and energy for this is a disaster for our planet. Senator Warren: Good. I'm glad to hear this. Look, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are terrible for the environment. And that would be true regardless of whether we were getting anything productive out of that energy usage or not. The fact that we're not makes it even more scandalous. One of the easiest and least disruptive things we can do to address the climate crisis is crack down on environmentally wasteful cryptocurrencies. And now is the time to do it. So, I wanna thank all of our witnesses for being here today. I wanna thank you for providing testimony.
Reference LinkSubmitted By: Anonymous - 8/16/2021, 7:14:17 PM
Negative. +1
During a hearing titled 'Cryptocurrencies: What are they good for?' Sen. Warren asked the following questions and made the following statements: Statement: Speaking on miners and coders. "So they have the capacity here to manipulate the system. You know, it sounds to me like a lousy trade-off. Instead of leaving our system, our financial system, at the whims of giant banks, crypto puts the system at the whims of some shadowy faceless group of supercoders and miners which doesn't sound better to me." Question: "But even if crypto isn't an improvement over our current system when it comes to being more democratic or less hackable, there's one other possible benefit and it is a big one crypto proponents claim, that crypto is safe from the kind of financial crisis that blew up the economy back in 2008. After all the story goes the motivation behind bitcoin's creation was to avoid exposure to bank collapses in financial contagion in the traditional financial system. Professor Walsh for that to be true crypto would have to be insulated from the risks that make our financial system vulnerable to a crisis and vice versa. Is that the case?" Statement: "So look, there's no doubt that we need a stronger, safer, and more inclusive financial system. The biggest banks have too much power, present too many risks to financial stability, and have failed to serve Americans needs. The giant banks have created huge problems, but I'm not convinced that crypto is the solution. In fact crypto could be even more dangerous for consumers, more dangerous for the environment, and more dangerous for the stability of our financial system. That is why yesterday I sent a letter to Secretary Yellen in her capacity as head of the financial stability oversight council to urge her to lead our regulators in developing a comprehensive and coordinated approach to regulating cryptocurrencies. Look, all the warning signs are flashing the hype the volatility the wild claims that turn out to be false. As the crypto market grows, so do the risk to our financial stability and our economy. Regulators need to do their job and step in before it's too late, thank you."
Reference LinkSubmitted By: Anonymous - 8/16/2021, 6:46:02 PM
Negative. +1
Sen. Warren's opening remarks during a Economic Policy Subcommittee hearing: "Second, crypto is a lousy investment. Unlike, say, the stock market, the crypto world currently has no consumer protection – none. As a result, honest investors and people trying to put aside some savings are at the mercy of fraudsters." "Third, crypto has become a haven for illegal activity. Online theft, drug trafficking, ransom attacks, and other illegal activity have all been made easier with crypto." "Finally, there are the environmental costs of crypto. Many cryptocurrencies are created through “proof-of-work” mining that involves using computers to solve useless mathematical puzzles in exchange for newly minted cryptocurrency tokens. Such mining has devastating consequences for the climate." "Meanwhile, cryptocurrency has created opportunities to scam investors, assist criminals, and worsen the climate crisis. The threats posted by crypto show that Congress and federal regulators can’t continue to hide out, hoping that crypto will go away. It won’t. It’s time to confront these issues head on."
Reference LinkSubmitted By: Anonymous - 8/16/2021, 6:30:59 PM
Negative. +1
Sen. Elizabeth Warren urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday to identify and remedy risks posed by cryptocurrencies and to craft a “comprehensive and coordinated” framework through which federal agencies can continually regulate virtual coins. “FSOC must act quickly to use its statutory authority to address cryptocurrencies’ risks and regulate the market to ensure the safety and stability of consumers and our financial system,” the Massachusetts Democrat wrote in a letter to Yellen. “As the demand for cryptocurrencies continues to grow and these assets become more embedded in our financial system, consumers, the environment, and our financial system are under growing threats,” she added.
Reference LinkSubmitted By: Anonymous - 8/16/2021, 6:23:02 PM
Negative. +1
Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CNBC on Wednesday she’s skeptical that bitcoin will prove to be a reliable hedge against inflation over the long run, a key reason some investors choose to own it. “People can make their own investment decisions, but to do that somehow assumes two things. One is that what’s happening with bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency is somehow going to be divorced from what’s happening elsewhere in the economy,” the Massachusetts Democrat, a frequent Wall Street and crypto critic, said on “Squawk Box.” “The idea that they’re somehow a protection or a hedge, I don’t think that’s going to be borne out over time,” she added. Warren called for cryptocurrencies to face tighter regulation, suggesting it will help root out “snake oil salesmen” and may shore up the confidence of investors in the nascent asset class.
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