U.S. infrastructure - at the expense of cryptocurrencies, or why isn't crypto growing?

The new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, is beginning to detail his priorities for regulating cryptocurrency, where billions of dollars in investments are on the books.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, Gensler reiterated his view that the SEC should have clearer oversight of exchanges to protect investors from fraud. According to Bloomberg, the main issues the SEC looks at in cryptocurrency are "initial coin offerings, trading floors, lending platforms, decentralized financing, stable-value coins, storage, and ETFs and other coin funds." Gensler has spoken several times about cryptocurrency regulation, but has yet to address some of the industry's biggest issues, such as whether a bitcoin exchange traded fund can get SEC approval?

U.S. infrastructure - at the expense of cryptocurrencies, or why isn't crypto growing?

He may bring more clarity after Tuesday 11 p.m. ET, when Gary Gensler is scheduled to speak at a security forum in Aspen.
Still, in the short term, the industry faces a bigger challenge as Congress looks for ways to pay the infrastructure bill, which is designed to shore up the nation's bridges, tunnels and rail system. Closing loopholes that allow cryptocurrency holders to avoid taxes is one way to raise money. Officials have complained that lax reporting standards make it easy to evade taxes on cryptocurrency transactions. Despite what they call cryptocurrencies, digital assets like Bitcoin are treated as assets by the IRS, which means every transaction is subject to capital gains taxes. That's one reason it doesn't make sense to use them for everyday purchases.
A provision in the Senate bill aims to raise $28 billion in taxes by forcing more companies in the industry to collect tax information. IRS officials said getting more tax information would help them track cryptocurrency profits, but the cryptocurrency community is concerned about the bill. The provision originally included language defining a cryptocurrency "broker," which industry lobbyists warned could include groups such as cryptocurrency miners who don't tend to collect financial information.
Lobbyists have succeeded in changing some of the language, but some industry supporters believe the changes don't go far enough and could still trap software companies that make products such as cryptocurrency wallets that allow people to store their assets.

Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he plans to amend the law to make it clearer. Jerry Brito, executive director of the cryptocurrency think tank CoinCenter, wrote on Twitter that there's still more to come: "Yes, there have been concessions, but the latest language could still be interpreted by the Treasury Department to cover miners, Lightning nodes, etc. If that's not the intent of Congress, they can make easy decisions. There's still time for that."
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