In a recent interview, US Congressman and well-known crypto skeptic Brad Sherman claimed that banning cryptocurrencies is not an option at this point.
In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, the Northridge-area Democrat said the crypto industry has grown very strong over the years. He added that large capital donations to politicians and strong pressure on cryptocurrencies make it impossible for them to impose a blanket ban. It is to explain:
“We didn’t ban it at first because we didn’t realize it was important, and we don’t ban it now because there’s a lot of money and power behind it.”
The Democratic representative is a well-known skeptic who has been calling for a crypto ban since 2019. Nearly three years later, Sherman has changed his tune on the ban and is now advocating for regulation of the crypto market.
The US congressman is particularly concerned about small investors and individual investors who often fall prey to gullible scams, but he admitted that no amount of efforts by the judiciary to protect investors will not work until they continue to invest in cryptocurrencies like memecoins. He said:
“It is difficult to manage a subcommittee devoted to investor protection in a country where people want to bet on [memecoins].”
Sherman called for crypto to be placed under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He criticized the same committee in July earlier this year for not prosecuting large cryptocurrency exchanges.
US lawmakers have long called for US regulators to bring the nascent crypto market under the scope of the law. However, there was a huge difference of opinion about how the cryptocurrency market should be regulated.
A large majority of lawmakers, including Sherman, support strict regulatory policies that crypto proponents believe will violate decentralization. The ban on Tornado Cash was one example supported by the likes of Sherman. On the other hand, American lawmakers like Hester Peirce and Cynthia Lummis have been fighting hard for pro-crypto regulations for a long time.
