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A tiny bit of shine came off bitcoin when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell poured cold water on the idea of the U.S. government holding a cryptocurrency reserve.
But bitcoin is still riding high since Donald Trump won the 2016 White House race.
Trump has voiced support for crypto and has picked crypto supporters for key roles within his administration.
Bitcoin was valued at about $69,000 on Election Day. In the weeks after Trump won the election, bitcoin surged above $100,000.
Trump spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference this summer, telling attendees that he wanted to make America the “crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world.”
Some of his picks for key jobs within his administration, such as treasury secretary and Securities and Exchange Commission chair, seem to back up that pro-crypto position.
But on Wednesday, Powell said the central bank isn’t allowed to own bitcoin and isn’t looking for a law change to allow the government to hold a crypto reserve.
A day later, bitcoin, the largest and oldest cryptocurrency, was trading about 5% lower than its 24-hour high, according to CoinDesk.
“I’m not surprised the Fed chair says they will not hold a central reserve of bitcoin,” Leonard Kostovetsky, an associate professor of finance at Baruch College, said in an email. “It’s not a part of the Federal Reserve’s mandate of keeping inflation and unemployment low and there is no obvious benefit to the economy from the Fed holding it. It’s also a decentralized currency so the Federal Reserve does not really play much of a role in its regulation.”
Kostovetsky, a cryptocurrency expert, also said he wasn’t sure Trump’s support of crypto had a lot of impact on its legitimacy.
“But crypto market participants are certainly betting that his appointees will reduce regulations on crypto which will make it more valuable,” he said.
The question of crypto regulations is not a simple one, said Roger Nober, the director of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center. And it begins with simply “deciding what it is.”
“Is crypto a security? Is it a commodity? Is it nothing, like who won the coin flip at the Super Bowl, just kind of a prop bet? Or is it any or any combination of those?” Nober said. “And so, first you have to decide what it is and how to regulate it.”
The current SEC felt that cryptocurrencies were securities, like stocks, and kept trying to control them with lawsuits against exchanges or tokens, Nober said.
Many aspects of crypto are now left to the eye of the beholder. Nober said he thinks the Trump administration will bring more clarity around crypto assets, but the approach remains murky.
“There’s a lot of ideas that are being thrown out by people, and it’s hard to know how many of them are what the administration thinks or what they don’t,” Nober said. “I don’t know that the administration knows what it thinks. I think different people involved in the administration may think they know what it thinks or want to speak for them.”
Peter Whitehead, a senior engineer at RAND, equated cryptocurrencies to “lemon” used cars due to an inherent asymmetry of information between crypto sellers and buyers.
“In the multibillion-dollar world of cryptocurrencies, information asymmetry is an inescapable and unchecked phenomenon and, unlike in the market for used cars, there is little consumers can currently do about it,” Whitehead wrote.
Cryptocurrencies operate through blockchains, or decentralized digital ledgers. Most Americans know little about the working of cryptocurrencies, Kostovetsky said. He noted that a recent Motley Fool poll showed only 18% of people felt they understood how crypto works.
Crypto is an extremely volatile investment, Kostovetsky said. It can often lose or gain as much as 10% of its value in just one day. And we can’t forecast crypto prices.
Unlike normal financial assets, like stocks and bonds, crypto is an asset whose entire value depends on what people are willing to pay for it at a period in time based on what they think someone else will pay for it in the future.
It is not backed by anything else, such as gold, tax revenue or corporate earnings. Kostovetsky said that makes it impossible to estimate if a particular crypto asset is overpriced or underpriced.
“The American public should approach crypto with extreme caution,” Kostovetsky said. “If people want to gamble, they can go to a casino or buy lottery tickets or bet on sports. Putting money in cryptocurrency should be seen as more similar to those activities than to investing one’s savings in stocks, bonds, or real estate.”
Nober said crypto’s instability is a deterrent to people who want to make long-term investments.
“You have to have a tolerance for risk that a lot of more mainstream investors don’t necessarily have,” he said.
The U.S. government holding a bitcoin reserve would be one way of demonstrating confidence in crypto.
“I think the people who are after a bitcoin reserve were perhaps after that market signal,” Nober said.
The Trump administration can foster adoption of crypto with regulatory clarity of the digital currencies. But he said congressional legislation would be preferable for clarity and durability of the market.
“Getting Congress to act on a statutory framework, particularly for something as controversial as crypto, is a challenge,” Nober said.
Have a news tip? Contact Cory Smith at corysmith@sbgtv.com or at x.com/Cory_L_Smith. Content from The National Desk is provided by Sinclair, the parent company of FOX45 News.
Copyright © 2024 Baltimore Sun
The man facing a murder charge after a Friday night shooting at Cary’s Fenton social district is an employee of the security provider there.
Cory Edward McNeill was found shot to death just before 9 p.m. Friday in Fenton’s Green parking deck, police said.
Shortly thereafter, police say, Malik Emaje Scott-McClarin called them and surrendered in connection with the shooting.
According to the warrant for his arrest, Scott-McClarin is an employee of Sunstates Security, a private security provider based in Raleigh. In a statement, Sunstates VP Roberta Scoblick said the company is cooperating with police in the murder investigation.
“Sunstates Security provides services for Fenton in an unarmed capacity,” she said.
She did not address why Scott-McClarin had a weapon on the property or whether he was on duty for Sunstates at the time of the shooting.
On Saturday, at least one guard wearing a Sunstates patch was visible on Fenton property.
Mike Woodard, who identified himself as a Sunstates employee contracted with Fenton, referred questions to the corporate office and asked WRAL News to leave the property.
Woodard did say that security at Fenton on Saturday was on par with the crowds to be expected on the final weekend before Christmas. He declined to offer specifics about security or personnel.
According to the Cary Police Department, officers were called around 8:45 p.m. to the Green parking deck at Fenton, where they found McNeill inside a vehicle.
Police Scott-McClarin and McNeill knew each other, and that there was no further threat to anyone else.
Court records show the two men were arrested on the same day (Oct. 22) and on the same charges in Selma — possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The shooting in Cary was the second in two days for the town. On Thursday night, a woman was shot on Berry Chase Way.
It was also at least the second at a busy shopping area Friday night, just days before Christmas. In Lumberton, a 42-year-old woman was shot and killed at a Walmart on the 5000 block of Fayetteville Road. Police there also said it was an isolated incident with no further threat to the public, although they did not immediately make an arrest or release the name or description of a suspect.
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In past years I have suggested going beyond Christmas and other holiday gifts that will soon be forgotten, returned or worn out, in favor of one that will last for generations to come.
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Last year I wrote about the Children’s Scholarship Fund, which provides private school tuition for poor and middle-class children in failing public schools. Not only do the private schools offer them a better education (most go on to college), but they also provide a moral foundation essential to living a successful life.
This year I’m recommending the ultimate gift — the gift of life to an unborn child, with accompanying assistance to the mother to help her prevail over what can be difficult circumstances in an unplanned pregnancy.
Heartbeat International was founded in 1971, two years before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case which struck down all state abortion restrictions. According to its year-end report, “(Heartbeat) is now the most expansive network in the world, assisting more than 3,500 affiliated pregnancy help locations … with medical clinics (ultrasounds), maternity homes and adoption agencies in more than 90 countries to provide alternatives to abortion.”
In its annual report for 2023, Heartbeat says it received more than 1.8 million in-person client visits. Their promotion of a pill that reverses abortions for women who have changed their minds after initiating the procedure has “rescued” 5,000 babies. It is something Planned Parenthood vigorously opposes.
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Heartbeat to force the organization to provide women at their help centers with abortion information. The Supreme Court rejected California’s efforts, but thanks in part to subsidies from the federal government (Elon and Vivek take note as you seek to reduce spending), they are likely to pursue other efforts to stymie the work of Heartbeat and pro-life organizations.
The experience of holding a baby in your arms and embracing a woman who sought life-affirming help, rather than an abortion – realizing you have contributed to that moment – is a unique experience. It is one I have enjoyed on many occasions.
Think of the positive impact. Each child rescued from an abortion will likely have children, and they will have children and so on for generations to come. A woman will be free of the guilt and sometimes depression and self-destructive behavior that too often comes after the procedure. An abortion removes a branch from the family tree.
News stories report sharp declines in birth rates in the U.S., Canada and Europe . There are several reasons, but abortion, along with a desire to avoid the “expense” of children, appear to be the main ones. Failing to have enough children to at least replace adults who die will have serious economic, social, political and other consequences for especially free nations.
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While there have been more abortions since Roe was overturned in the Dobbs decision, Heartbeat and other pro-life groups continue to spread information often denied women by abortion clinics. On Heartbeat International’s website there are testimonies from women who at first sought an abortion, in some cases taking the abortion pill, and then changed their minds. Their comments also include the words “support” and “resources,” something lacking at abortion clinics. Their stories counter the lie told over the years that pro-life people don’t care about the woman or the baby after birth.
Saving lives — babies and mothers — is a two-way blessing. Make a donation and see what I mean.
This Cal Thomas commentary is his opinion. He can be reached at cthomas@wctrib.com.
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This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here.
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