U.S. Senator from Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis, said that Bitcoin and other ‘non-fiat currencies’ could potentially help Americans and citizens of other countries cope with the looming economic crisis.
Last Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill to temporarily raise the debt ceiling to avoid a potential default. The measure would cover national spending through December 3, 2021.
The measure contemplates an increase of $480 billion, bringing the cap to $28.9 trillion. Debt-ceiling limits came back into effect on August 1 — they had not been in force for two years.
In late September, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged Congress to raise the ceiling. In October, Biden himself made the same call.
According to Lummis, governments do not back the issuance of cryptocurrencies, and therefore they are not tied to the debts accumulated by governments. If the authorities in the United States and other countries face a collapse, these instruments will allow people to preserve their savings, she noted.
“Presidents of both parties have run up debts. Irresponsible, with no plans to solve this problem. Thank God for Bitcoin and other non-fiat currencies that outrun the irresponsibility of governments, including our own,” the senator added.
In 2013, Lummis first invested in digital gold, and by the end of June 2021 she owned 5 BTC. In August she bought additional cryptocurrency worth between $50,000 and $100,000.
Earlier, the politician became co-author of the amendment to the infrastructure bill, the original draft of which faced criticism from the crypto community.
Experts say the document overly broadly interprets the notion of “broker” with respect to industry participants, which implies reporting obligations and costs.
The Wyden–Lummis–Toomey amendment excluded miners, node operators, software developers, and other non-custodial participants from this category. As a result of the vote, it did not make it into the document, nor did the competing proposal.
The Senate did not adopt the compromise amendment, developed in conjunction with the Treasury, sending the plan to the House of Representatives without changes to the cryptocurrency provisions.
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