Politicians in the good ol’ US of A sure do have crypto on the agenda of late. The latest annoying news for the sector involves a PPPT – a particularly punitive potential tax on Bitcoin/crypto mining.

As reported by CoinDesk and various other media, the White House is hoping to convince Congress to pass a bill that would impose a 30% climate change tax on crypto mining operations for the “harms they impose on society”.

The Biden administration’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) clarified in a blog post that the tax would equal 30% of a crypto mining firm’s energy costs – an unprecedented penalty that would appear to be specific to the crypto industry.

Another clear attempt to stifle the US crypto industry from the Democratic side of the political ledger? If this were to go through, you might very well see Bitcoin mining operations up and moving in a mass migration again, relocating anywhere but the US (and, er, China, where it’s still banned). And maybe that’s the plan by the “Anti-Crypto Army” being controlled from Senator Elizabeth Warren’s office/war room.

“Currently, cryptomining firms do not have to pay for the full cost they impose on others, in the form of local environmental pollution, higher energy prices, and the impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions on the climate,” read’s the CEA’s description of the proposed Digital Asset Mining Energy tax.

The tax would be phased in over a period of three years, starting at 10% in the first year before rising to 20% and eventually 30% in the following two years. Over 10 years, it would supposedly generate an estimated US$3.5 billion in revenue for the government.

Bitcoin mining has become a target for several left-wing politicians who point to an inordinate amount of energy consumption the process requires.

Bitcoiners, and several Republicans, such as Texan senator Ted Cruz, have made efforts to publicly debunk misconceptions about the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining, pointing to great strides in the industry, particularly in the US, that have made the majority of Bitcoin mining sustainable-energy-leveraged operations.

“This puts a clear line in the sand that they do not like the industry. They are looking for ways to hamstring it,” said Tom Mapes, director of energy policy at the Chamber of Digital Commerce, in conversation with Yahoo News. “This is just a way to go after the industry which they do not support.”

 

And in other news… 

• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who, like the Mayor of Miami Francis Suarez, is known to be crypto-friendly, took aim (again) at the idea of a US CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) this week.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, the governor and likely Republican presidential candidate unveiled a series of state legislative proposals entitled “Government of Laws, Not Woke Politics”.

DeSantis wants to ban CBDCs in Florida, calling them  “Big Brother’s Digital Dollar”.

“The danger of the digital currency is that they want to make that the sole currency – they want to put everything in a central bank digital currency,” he said. “I think that that’s fundamentally wrong, so we’re recognizing the dangers with this agenda.”

DeSantis also said, presumably referring to the Biden administration:

“They don’t like crypto because they can’t control crypto. They want to get rid of crypto, which my view is, if you want to invest in crypto, it’s up to you, you can do it, you can make those decisions.”

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr, meanwhile – another putting his hand up for the highest office in the States – has also come out swinging against CBDCs while defending the crypto industry recently.

Here he is, tweeting and referencing an article written by Ellen Brown – an American author, attorney and founder of the Public Banking Institute bipartisan think tank.

The article is title “How the War on Crypto Triggered a Banking Crisis” and Kennedy notes that Brown “makes a strong case, pointing to the idea that a SEC and FDIC-led campaign to stifle the crypto industry in the US (with “no authority” to do so), has contributed to the historic collapse of several banks in recent months – including Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate.

 

Top 10 overview

With the overall crypto market cap at US$1.23 trillion, up about 1.6% since this time yesterday, here’s the current state of play among top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.

Source: CoinGecko.com

 

 

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