In the face of criticism accusing the Democratic presidential candidate of opposing the “spirit” of financial freedom of Bitcoin, there is the possibility that greater regulation could favor the entry of new users into the crypto market.
Cryptocurrencies are once again a topic of discussion in the US election campaign. Former President Donald Trump's open support has been joined by recent statements from Kamala Harris' team. This is the "Black Men's Opportunity Agenda," a report to support African-American men and women.
The study includes a proposal to regulate cryptocurrencies. It reports that more than 20% of African Americans own or have owned Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies. In that regard, Harris recognizes the ways in which these new technologies can expand access to banking and financial services.
The impact on the crypto market was not long in coming: on Wednesday 16th, Bitcoin rose by 2.9% to reach US$68,376, before slowing down its rise. It is worth noting that the last time it reached a value of US$70,000 was in July and, furthermore, we have to go back to March to find an all-time high of US$74,000.
The presidential candidate's team assures that if the Democrats win the elections, Harris will ensure that African-American investors and users of cryptocurrencies (as well as "other people") benefit from a regulatory framework.
“This is very positive, since generating certainties around the crypto industry is positive for the long term. It adds to the decisions we have seen this year regarding the approval of ETFs, good judicial results in court, among other factors,” explained Nicolás Jaramillo, COO of Arch.finance for AméricaEconomía .
However, Jaramillo clarifies that Harris' announcement does not necessarily generate immediate reactions, but rather provides greater certainty so that when there is a new rise in Bitcoin, actors who previously did not enter the crypto market due to regulatory risk, would now dare to do so. In other words, it protects current users and invites new actors to participate in the industry.
However, there are voices that disagree with the possibility of regulation. For example, the Cripto Noticias portal points out that Bitcoin operates in a global network where individual sovereignty and financial autonomy are fundamental principles. While Jaramillo supports the establishment of rules, he believes that this should be adapted to the nature of cryptocurrencies.
“It is important to create a regulatory framework ad hoc to the nature of this technology and not try to adapt regulations that already exist. This only prevents innovation and the industry from developing in other latitudes. A good parallel is to think about what happened with ride-hailing companies like Uber, when they resisted taxi regulation. But they were able to create ad hoc regulations in different countries,” says the spokesperson.
Thus, with the proposed regulatory framework on the table, the biggest challenges for cryptocurrency adoption focus on finding everyday use cases for blockchain technology. These “blockchains” allow transactions to be recorded and verified in a relatively secure, decentralized and transparent manner.
In other words, it is a distributed digital ledger that stores all Bitcoin transactions in blocks of data that are interconnected in chronological order. For Jaramillo, the full potential of this tool and other Web3 technologies, i.e. systems that decentralize ownership and control of data on the Internet, has not yet been fully exploited.
“It is clear that Bitcoin's role is to be a safe haven for value that is better than gold or stablecoins, allowing exposure to the dollar anywhere in the world. But it is not clear to the world in general what the utility of the different blockchains and projects that are built on Web3 is. That is the great challenge we have for mass adoption,” explains the analyst.
