In a White House briefing, Mnuchin mirrored president Trump’s recently-found tough stance on digital assets by claiming that its potential to facilitate crime is high. “Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cybercrime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs, human trafficking,” Mnuchin told reporters. “Many players have attempted to use cryptocurrencies to fund their maligned behavior. This is indeed a national security issue,” he added.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 15, 2019 Facebook, which is scheduled to front the US senate today, has already said that it won’t launch Libra until the concerns of financial regulators and central banks are fully met. In his official testimony, Facebook’s head of Calibra David Marcus also clarified its Libra token isn’t intended to rival to the US dollar, but rather serve as a tool to make international payments more efficient. A Facebook spokesperson previously confirmed Libra won’t launch in India due to vehement government scrutiny. Early Friday, Trump tweeted a barrage of anti-Bitcoin sentiment. It consisted mostly of outdated rhetoric — that Bitcoin et al are super bad because they facilitate illegal activity, yadda yadda.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019 Almost entirely indifferent to Mnuchin’s ramblings, the price of Bitcoin has risen roughly 4 percent in the past day – a small recovery since dropping over 12 percent in the past week.
