US Senator says there is no reason for cryptocurrencies to exist

The market for digital assets is not backed by anything and offers nothing, so there is no reason for it to exist. This was stated in an NBC interview by Jon Tester, a Democratic senator from Montana.

WATCH: Crypto has not “been able to pass the smell test” for Senator Jon Tester.@SenatorTester: “If we regulate it, it may give it the ability for people to think it’s real.” pic.twitter.com/CklztHv8vZ

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) December 11, 2022

Tester sits on the Senate Banking Committee, which is considering the issue of regulating cryptocurrencies in the United States.

“In my view, digital assets have not passed the ‘smell test’. I couldn’t find anyone who could explain to me what is in there, other than synthetics […], which don’t mean anything. […] If we regulate them, this could create the impression that they are real,” the legislator explained.

On December 2, Tester, in an interview Semafor, called the industry “nonsense” and struggled to find what supports cryptocurrencies. He was backed by fellow Senate Banking Committee member Elizabeth Warren, a well-known cryptocurrency critic.

The editor of the publication Jordan Weissmann noted that the FTX collapse allowed Democrats to say what they really think about the industry.

After FTX, it seems Dems suddenly feel free to say what they really think about the crypto industry.

Jon Tester told our reporter yesterday that he thinks the entire thing is «bullshit.» Warren, Brown, and Sanders also had words. https://t.co/LzbCM9SkJD

— Jordan Weissmann (@JHWeissmann) December 1, 2022

Earlier, Warren called for tighter crypto regulation, drawing parallels between FTX and Lehman Brothers.

Earlier, Warren had compared cryptocurrencies to the U.S. mortgage crisis. In July she urged Congress and the SEC to take a tougher stance toward the industry amid problems with Celsius Network and a number of other companies.

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