No CommentsThe idea of a “blanket operation” against Bitcoin, disclosed by the Bitcoin Foundation, which recently received a ‘cease and desist order’ from the financial authorities of California, might not be just a crazy theory. At least, according to this article published by The Wall Street Journal.
In one of his latest texts, the journalist Robin Sidel highlighted the fact that some state regulators are really worried about cryptocurrency. They are warning the institutions that deal with Bitcoin, from the exchange platforms to the companies, threatening them with a forced shut down if the money-transmission laws are not followed.
And it’s not just in California that this is happening: according to inside sources, other banking regulators in New York and Virginia, for instance, have also warned Bitcoin-related institutions in the last weeks.
This kind of move clearly states the true intentions of the regulators. They are way past the subtle scrutinizing action and are walking towards the financial supervision and prevention of what they like to call “illegal activities”. Whether we are talking about real illegal activities, like money laundering, or other kind of actions like receiving donations to promote Bitcoin, the kind of work that the Bitcoin Foundation has been doing, we still don’t know.
What we do know is that, according to The Wall Street Journal, similar actions can be expected from other states in the next weeks and months. The states of California, New York and Virginia might be just the first ones to act, since they are only three of the 48 states that require the companies to obtain money-transmission licenses to operate.
In the case of the state against the Bitcoin Foundation, there are news. Patrick Murck, general counsel for the institution, remembered that the foundation it is a nonprofit organization and doesn’t engage in money transmission. Does that matter to the authorities? Not so much… So, the group is formulating its response to the ‘cease and desist order” it received from regulators last week. Hopefully, they will manage to avoid any consequences.
