I don’t believe Warren’s bill will get traction. It does not have bipartisan support, doesn’t seem like it will be attached to anything ‘must-pass’, and flies in the face of what experts and the Administration recommend regarding crypto and sanctions. Additionally, Sen. Warren thoroughly embarrassed herself with her performance at the Senate

[In the U.S.,] There is absolutely nothing about legal tender status that has any effect on capital gains tax. There just isn’t. All legal tender status means is that courts will recognize the tendering of the designated medium as sufficient to discharge a money debt.

Hawaii is deciding the future of crypto in the state right now and it’s not looking great; the SEC is quietly considering an expansion of regulation aimed at decentralized exchange protocols like Bisq; we have just a few months to try to influence the reports that will come out of the Biden executive order, etc.

We desperately need a de minimis exemption from capital gains for personal transactions, like the one Coin Center has gotten introduced in the last three Congresses and that has now been adopted by Sen. Lummis. These are what top priorities look like.

Law should be technology neutral. It shouldn’t favor one technology over another. Instead it should only foster an even playing field and allow for competition. For example, to the extent we’re concerned about the environmental impact of Bitcoin’s electricity use and see it as a negative externality, the correct policy prescription would be to place a tax on CO2-emitting electricity generation, not on proof-of-work mining specifically.