News

Trump Has the Power to Ban Crypto, But it’s Very Unlikely That He Will

Published

5 months ago

July 15, 2019 .

Last modified

5 months ago

July 15, 2019

Jinia S

According to Alex Krueger, an economist, and trader, Trump would cause bitcoin’s (BTC) price to plummet if he banned the coin. However, the economist believes the law would stop the US president from making such a move. Krueger aired his opinions on Twitter earlier today.

This news comes after Trump unveiled that he does not like bitcoin and other crypto coins in the past week.

He noted,

I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019

While the president unveiled that he is bearish on crypto, he failed to affect the crypto market. However, the leading coin plunged below $10,000 over the weekend before surging once again.

Trump Can Succeed in Banning BTC

Krueger posted a stream of tweets arguing that Trump could have some success when he tries to ban crypto. The economist noted that the president could turn bitcoin into an isolated asset by capping entry and exit points for retail and institutional investors. In so doing, he would make BTC an illiquid digital currency.

He added,

Trump could also go after fiat onramps, by simply forbidding banks to service crypto exchanges, or by requiring banks to not service exchanges unless conditions XYZ are fulfilled (and make that practically impossible).

To achieve this, Trump would need to convince Congress of the need to ban bitcoin. However, the lawmakers could downturn his demands. Per Krueger, this is regardless of whether the president makes the demands via an executive order or similar emergency measures.

With this in mind, Krueger concluded that a ban is possible. Nonetheless, the likeliness of it becoming law is very low.

This news comes after mass media noted that Trump had accidentally made bitcoin a campaign topic in the upcoming elections. On top of this, the president gave valuable recognition to the nascent crypto sector.

Also, crypto enthusiasts believe that Trump’s mention of crypto will see the market thrive.

For instance, Jeremy Allaire, the co-founder, and CEO of Circle said that it was,

Possibly the largest bull signal for BTC ever. Crypto now a Presidential / Global policy issue. People everywhere will embrace a mix of sovereign and non-sovereign digital currency.

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s CEO tweeted,

Achievement unlocked! I dreamt about a sitting U.S. president needing to respond to growing cryptocurrency usage years ago. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”. We just made it to step 3 y’all. https://t.co/N3tzUKELaK

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) July 12, 2019