Biden administration will reportedly seek to regulate Bitcoin via executive order

According to some reports, the Biden administration is looking to issue an executive order to direct federal agencies to regulate digital assets like bitcoin, Ethereum, and NFTs.

The administration is planning to issue that regulative order as it has considered digital assets to be “a matter of national security.” 

“This is designed to look holistically at digital assets and develop a set of policies that give coherency to what the government is trying to do with this space,” said a person familiar with the White House’s plan.

That individual indicated that the White House National Security Council, the State Department, Treasury Department, National Economic Council, and Council of Economic Advisers would all be involved in the order.

“Because digital assets don’t stay in one country, it’s necessary to work with other countries on synchronization,” the source added.

The bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets have exploded from $200 billion in January of 2020 to over $1.5 trillion today because more and more people have bought into the digital currency to secure the potential in the future of finance.

At the same time, NFTs, which are digital certificates built on the ethereum blockchain, have been taken up by the arts and sports industries as a new revenue stream. 

Other countries are looking to regulate the bitcoin and crytpo markets as well, with some considering a blanket ban on cryptocurrency, following in China’s footsteps with the measure. The United States is now home to more “bitcoin miners,” those who create new bitcoins using massive amounts of energy, than any other country since the ban instituted by China last year.

“We need to regulate, not ban,” said a senior Russian official this week. That comment came after the country’s central bank recommended a complete ban on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.