By T N Ashok
NEW YORK: Former US President Joe Biden considered regulating crypto currency just like many level headed presidents and prime ministers of other countries because US intelligence reports revealed that the crypto currency was largely used by the underworld to stash money earned by beating the law and it kept moving across the globe and had no regulatory authority to track it.
He also considered introducing Bitcoin through the Federal Reserve where there was accountability in terms of the source of income going into Bitcoin and it came under the government’s regulatory measures. India too is considering introducing Bitcoin through its Federal Reserve, namely the Reserve Bank of India so that source of income is known for tax purposes, and its movement was kept a track of.
The entire idea of introducing official crypto currency was to ensure that genuine investors monies parked in the Bitcoin was diverted back to official channels and their monies were protected and it was not nixed with the monies moved by the underworlds such as drug cartels of Mexico, crime lords of New York and Chicago, and blood money from Africa.
Before Biden could move into the matter with Fed Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, he went out of power ceding presidential powers and authority to a businessman cum politician Donald Trump, who thinks out of the box (the Wrong Way) and uses non bureaucratic methods to implement his policies.
So, the world of crypto currency has got a new lease of life, thanks to Trump, who has launched his own company through his family members, called the World Liberty Financial. The world of crypto currency is strange. Ever since its introduction, probably a decade ago, it was launched with a $1 price tag which soared to $1,000 and now is a whopping $100,000. It’s fantastic place to invest without being monitored by the government and having to pay taxes when you double, triple, quadruple your investments.
Crypto currencies use a tool or methodology for storing virtual money in an ingenious way – the block chain technology. Money is stored virtually in a black box from which you can recall your money anytime, anywhere in the world through codes provided to you by the masterminds of the block chain who manage your currency. Those who manage the block chain are anonymous bankers.
The problem with crypto currency is that it exploded into tens and thousands of different variants of the BitCoin, I shall list them separately in my next essay. Bitcoins are becoming famous in India where a lot of income generated by mafia dons, film stars and corrupt politicians park their illegal incomes in crypto currency, which is not monitored by the government.
Even famous movie stars like Amitabh Bachchan openly admitted in a TV interview that he invested his money in crypto currency which quadrupled his money, and he went on to say you can also do it.
The interview was taken down by the channel as it kicked up not just a controversy but a storm in the financial world which was largely regulated by the Reserve Bank of India at a time when the Modi government was planning to introduce an official version of its own crypto currency where investors monies were tracked, secured and avoided being mixed with shady dealer’s parking monies there.
Trump was the promoter of the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas where participants questioned the effects of Trump’s meme coin. The meme coin had no links to the president himself per se but to his son Eric Trump, Don Trump jr, managing a company called the World Liberty Financial (WLF).
At Las Vegas, the biggest official gambling den of the world, bitcoin’ staged its biggest event of the year, the Trump administration was omnipresent. Vice President JD Vance was the keynote speaker at the Bitcoin 2025 conference Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr. appeared on multiple panels, and a delegation of White House advisers including crypto czar David Sacks praised crypto as the future of technology.
The crypto community is used to being treated with skepticism and scorn from many politicians and lawmakers. But a warm embrace from the Trump White House still hasn’t erased some crypto investors’ skepticism, many US publications noted.
Trump has been loosening government oversight and regulations around cryptocurrency; he has also waded into his own crypto project: the $TRUMP coin. Earlier in May, Trump hosted a private dinner at his Washington, D.C.-area golf club for top $TRUMP coin buyers, who on average spent more than $1 million per seat and sparked widespread concern about opportunities for influence-buying.
‘Trump’s dive into cryptocurrency raised alarm over ethical financial dealings. The president’s hawking of $Trump memecoin has sparked a firestorm of criticism over potential influence buying .
Donald Trump’s push to sharply ease oversight of the cryptocurrency industry, while he and his sons have fast expanded crypto ventures that have reaped billions of dollars from investors including foreign ones, is raising alarm about ethical and legal issues.
Watchdog groups, congressional Democrats and some Republicans have levelled a firestorm of criticism at Trump for hawking his own meme coin, $Trump, a novelty crypto token with no inherent value, by personally hosting a 22 May dinner at his Virginia golf club for the 220 largest buyers of $Trump and a private “reception” for the 25 biggest buyers.
To attend the two events, the $Trump buyers spent about $148m, which will benefit Trump and partners, according to the crypto firm Inca Digital.
Further, the Trump family crypto venture World Liberty Financial that launched last fall, which his two oldest sons have promoted hard, was tapped this month to play a key part in a $2bn investment deal by an Abu Dhabi financial fund in the crypto exchange Binance, which in 2023 pleaded guilty to US money laundering and other violations.
The new WLF deal was announced at an Abu Dhabi crypto conference that drew Eric Trump two weeks before Trump’s mid-May visit to the United Arab Emirates capital, sparking other concerns of improper foreign influence and ethics issues. . But Trump is not caring for any criticism. He is going all out for encouraging the crypto market which engances wealth of his family members and friends. (IPA Service)
