Senator Jon Tester: Crypto Has Not ‘Been Able to Pass the Smell Test’
Democrat doesn't even want to regulate the sector
Cryptocurrency — the digital currency, which is an alternative form of payment created using encryption algorithms — doesn't “pass the smell test,” according to one moderate Democratic senator, who's not even interested in regulating the sector even after the recent and very public collapse of a crypto exchange.
Cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin and others, has drawn a lot of attention in recent years as their values occasionally soar despite often plunging back to Earth.
FTX last month declared bankruptcy and announced the resignation of founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried after a sudden and dramatic collapse, drawing fresh scrutiny to crypto as a whole.
“It's not been able to pass the smell test for me. I have not been able to find anybody who's been able to explain to me what's there other than synthetics, and — which means nothing…” Sen Jon Tester (D-Mont) said in an on-camera interview with NBC News host Chuck Todd, before Todd injected, “Air? Yeah.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Tester continued.
And it's that perceived lack of reality that leaves the two-term senator reluctant to even regulate cryptocurrency — even in the face of big reversals like the FTX debacle.
“And the problem is, if we regulate it, and I pointed this out to some of the regulators here a week or two ago, if we regulated it, it may give it the ability of people to think it's real,” Tester said. “You know, truth be known, my personal thought — and I'm not a regulator and I'm not a financial person that does regulation — but I see no reason why this stuff should exist.”
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