Former Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) CEO Gary Cohn worked as the chief economic advisor to the Trump administration for about a year. However, what he recently said about the crypto space gave little indication about how the U.S. will handle the space.
In an interview with CNBC, he said, like most observers of the space, that he was not a big believer of Bitcoin. However, he did believe in the Blockchain technology.
It remains to be seen if Trump thinks the same.
Let’s discuss.
Banker turned government player
From 2006 to 2017, Cohn was the CEO of Goldman. He quit to join the Trump administration in 2017. Then he quit the administration last month.
While Cohn didn’t go into the administration’s views on the crypto space, he voiced his own as opinions as a private observer. One of the comments related to a global digital currency.
On the issue, he said:
"I do think we will have a global cryptocurrency at some point where the world understands it and it's not based on mining costs or cost of electricity or things like that."
Instead of Bitcoin being the global currency, he said he thought the future’s digital coin would be something simpler than Bitcoin.
"It will be a more easily understood cryptocurrency,"
Trump administration’s crypto stance
President Trump has not weighed in on the crypto space, such as whether he will ban Bitcoin.
The closest indication we’ve seen came from Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year when testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Then, he said he was concerned about criminals using the dark web to sell illegal substance and guns.
“They use bitcoins, and other untraceable financial capabilities and it is a big problem.”
We reported to you in December about Randal Quarles, the vice chairman for supervision for the Federal Reserve, making strong statements against cryptos.
He said:
“While these digital currencies may not pose major concerns at their current levels of use, more serious financial stability issues may result if they achieve wide-scale usage. Risk management can act as a mitigant, but if the central asset in a payment system cannot be predictably redeemed for the U.S. dollar at a stable exchange rate in times of adversity, the resulting price risk and potential liquidity and credit risk pose a large challenge for the system.”
Then there is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Both seem to be in a wait-and-see mode in terms of regulating the space. They have, however, cracked down, and charged schemers.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
