The Senate Meets the Cyber-Hornets: The Nascent Crypto Lobby Is Actually Effective

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 786 Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The infrastructure bill’s crypto provision had the industry scrambling to lobby for change. On this episode of “The Breakdown,” NLW covers the continuing saga of the bill, including: A recap on the bill’s crypto provision and subsequent backlash Crypto industry’s resistance going mainstream Regulatory battles to come A last-minute addition to the infrastructure bill met with fierce resistance from figures across the crypto sector, from industry executives to crypto-friendly lawmakers. These statements called out the destructive nature of the bill as it would require non-broker crypto intermediaries to comply with strict IRS reporting standards, a nearly impossible task. The extensive lobbying has not gone unnoticed. Mainstream media picked up the story as more and more statements called out the potential dangers of the bill. Policymakers are now forced to face the angry cyber-hornets headed their way. The infrastructure bill battle is the first of many regulatory clashes to come. For example, debate is currently raging on crypto Twitter about the implications of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s speech on crypto today. Will the crypto industry tackle future regulatory collisions with a similar ferocity? Enjoying this content? SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1438693620?at=1000lSDb Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/538vuul1PuorUDwgkC8JWF?si=ddSvD-HST2e_E7wgxcjtfQ Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9ubHdjcnlwdG8ubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M= Follow on Twitter: NLW: https://twitter.com/nlw Breakdown: https://twitter.com/BreakdownNLW The Breakdown is written, produced by and features NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Only in Time” by Abloom. Image credit: iLexx/iStock/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I wonder if right now any of these senators that thought this was a good idea and that we
0:06.3	were a little pushover community are sitting there just asking themselves what in the actual
0:12.1	tarnation they've gotten themselves into. Senators meet the cyber hornets. Welcome back The Breakdown with me, NLW.
0:24.1	It's a daily podcast on Macro, Bitcoin, and the Big Picture Power Shifts remaking our world.
0:31.2	The Breakdown is sponsored by Nidig and produced and distributed by CoinDesk.
0:37.6	What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, August 3rd, and today we are talking about the Senate meeting the Cyber Hornets.
0:46.2	I know, I know it has been a lot of days with a focus on this developing infrastructure bill story.
0:52.0	But first, hopefully by now you grok how big the implications
0:55.8	are for the industry. Second, it is an extremely fast-moving story. There were new relevant events that
1:02.1	happened between when I finished recording yesterday and when the podcast was actually released.
1:07.3	And three, there are some larger dimensions to it that have implications even beyond just this
1:12.0	bill. So at least for a little while, you're stuck with this story. And where we left off
1:17.2	yesterday was the furious lobbying of the crypto industry over the weekend had made some progress.
1:23.0	The language in the bill was softened. As coin centers Jerry Brito put it, it's better than where we
1:28.1	started, but still not good enough to clearly exclude minors and similarly situated persons.
1:34.7	Now, if you happen to be just tuning in for the first time, just hearing about this for the
1:38.9	first time, effectively the issue here is that at the last minute, the folks writing the key
1:44.1	infrastructure bill added crypto tax payments as a part of it. Specifically, Effectively the issue here is that at the last minute, the folks writing the key infrastructure
1:44.7	bill added crypto tax payments as a part of it. Specifically, they put in new definitions of who
1:50.6	constitutes a broker for the sake of tax reporting in order to get back taxes that they claim
1:56.4	were going unreported. The problem is that the definition of broker was so wide that it could
2:02.4	implicate a huge number of people in the crypto industry that don't look at all like brokers
	...

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