How real is the threat of regulatory overreach and higher taxation for Bitcoin? If powerful Western governments want to knock Bitcoin down a peg as it prepares to roll out digital versions of the dollar and euro, what’s to stop them from trying to punish it through stricter rules and higher taxes?
This week might go down as one of the key markers in Bitcoin history. The International Monetary Fund warned El Salvador to do away with its Bitcoin-as-legal-tender policy. And President Biden saying new rules for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are coming soon.
It’s one thing for the President of the United States to tell the public that new regulations are coming in its home market. But what’s this with the IMF telling a sovereign nation what to do with its currency policy? It’s not like El Salvador is borrowing money from the IMF in Bitcoin. The Powers-that-Be are anxious. They cannot roll out their central bank digital currencies fast enough. And decentralized crypto is gaining power.