Michael Bennet: '98% Of Americans' Would Back My Bill Barring Officials From Issuing Crypto Coins

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) spoke about his bill to ban elected officials from issuing their own digital coins.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Senator Bennett. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding this hearing.

00:05Thank you to the witnesses for being here. Mr. Massad, President Trump earned about $57 million

00:12from his stake in World Liberty Financial last year, according to most recent disclosure forms.

00:19In the last few months, World Liberty Financial launched a stable coin, which was used by an

00:24Abu Dhabi-backed investment company, for a $2 billion investment in finance. Just before the

00:31inauguration, President Trump issued a meme coin, which surged in price in May. President Trump

00:38hosted a dinner, as has been said, for the 220 biggest holders of his Trump coin, further

00:44juicing the value of that coin. About 80 percent of the tokens are held by Trump-affiliated entities.

00:50I don't think we should have to wonder if the President of the United States is favoring

00:54the interests of a foreign nation or a private crypto exchange like Binance because he stands

01:01to personally profit. And that's why last month I took over the Senate floor to directly add

01:09an amendment to a piece of crypto legislation that we were considering, the so-called Genius

01:14Act, which was on the floor of the Senate. My amendment, the only Democratic amendment

01:20that was pending, would have prevented the President and the Vice President from issuing stable coins.

01:26I would be surprised to know that there are a smaller percentage than 95 percent of the

01:32American people who would not have agreed with my amendment. And yet it was thrown out of

01:37the bill and Democrats and Republicans voted for that bill without demanding that the President

01:44and the Vice President and members of Congress not issue these currencies. Today's conversation

01:51does not only address stable coins, but the entire ecosystem of digital assets. And it is

01:57really important for us to get it right. I believe really strongly that, and I believe, again,

02:0595 percent of the American people, if not 98 percent of American people, would agree that the President,

02:11the Vice President, member of Congress, high-ranking official of our government should not be in

02:16the business of issuing any cryptocurrency. Mr. Massad, as a former federal regulator, should

02:22federal elected officials be prohibited from issuing or endorsing digital assets while they're in office?

02:29Absolutely, Senator.

02:31And what kind of market manipulation might result from that? We've had some discussions today about why

02:38these are like other commodities, like wheat or like, well, how is it maybe different?

02:43The meme coins are a perfect example. They've been called a classic pump-and-dump scheme by a number of

02:49commentators. They were issued, people rushed to buy them, he made a lot of money off of that, and then the

02:55price fell. And a lot of people then had losses. And, you know, he's investing in not just a stablecoin,

03:03he's now, they're now doing things with Bitcoin mining and other business ventures. So, I agree with

03:09you totally. You should be limited, you should be prohibited from doing those things and required to divest.

03:14What, what, what, what, can you imagine any benefit to the American people of allowing the

03:21president or vice president to speculate in this currency? None. None whatsoever, Senator.

03:28And yet the U.S. Senate has passed a bill that allows them to do it. And I offered an, I had an

03:34amendment pending that said the president or vice president shouldn't do it. I would be shocked if

03:40I lived long enough to have an amendment pending that would be more popular with the American people

03:46than the one that I had in there. And yet the Senate threw it out before they blithely

03:51passed the legislation. We've, we've never imagined that a president would do these kinds of things

03:57and, and therefore, you know, we don't have the rules in place to prevent it, but we need them now.

04:02I would think the industry would want these rules in place. I think they do. They're just afraid to

04:06say it. Why are they afraid to say it? Because they're afraid that it might hurt their business

04:11interest. I've had so many people in the crypto industry come up and tell me that. Well, we're going to

04:17have to figure out as the elected leadership of this, of this nation to do better than that.

04:22I would agree, Senator, if you don't do it, who will? Exactly. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.

04:29I'll submit my other questions for the record, but I appreciate, I think you shed some important light

04:33here. Thank you.

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