A Secret ‘Alliance To Destroy Crypto’ By ‘Usurping Congress’—Key Elon Musk Ally Fans Wild Rumor That’s Played Havoc With The Price Of Bitcoin And Ethereum
BitcoinBTC and ethereum—the two largest cryptocurrencies by a considerable margin—have swung wildly this week as sudden regulatory action rocks the world of crypto (with further shocks expected).
The bitcoin price has crashed to levels not seen since March this week following a devastating one-two punch from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against first Binance and then CoinbaseCOIN, two of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, that’s led to a serious Coinbase warning.
Now, David Sacks, a tech investor who’s a close associate of Tesla billionaire and Twitter owner Elon Musk, has claimed without evidence that SEC chair Gary Gensler and influential U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren have formed an “alliance” to destroy crypto in the U.S.—worsening a massive bitcoin and crypto price crash.
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“The scuttlebutt is that [Gensler] has an alliance with Elizabeth Warren, and the rumor is that she will make him Treasury Secretary if he basically destroys crypto in the U.S.,” Sacks said on the All-In Podcast, alongside fellow investors Jason Calacanis, Chamath Palihapitiya and David Friedberg.
This week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sent shockwaves through the crypto market by charging Coinbase with operating illegally, widening its crackdown on the industry after suing the world’s largest crypto trading platform, Binance, accusing it of a range of violations that include mishandling user funds, inflating trading volume and evading regulation.
In April, Palihapitiya, speaking on the same podcast, declared, “crypto is dead in America”—correctly predicting regulators are coming for crypto companies like Coinbase in the aftermath of the 2022 bitcoin and crypto price crash that led to the implosion of major exchange FTX.
“What Gensler and the SEC are saying is that it is not legal to operate a crypto exchange in the United States,” Sacks said. “I believe that Gensler is far exceeding his authority in stating something like that. It is not up to the chairman of the SEC to say that Americans should not be holding crypto.”
Earlier this year, Warren signaled she’s “building an anti-crypto army” as part of her re-election campaign, embracing a quote from a Politico profile.
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Last week, U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill into Congress that proposed a “functional framework” designed to provide regulatory clarity for bitcoin and crypto companies in the country.
The new U.S. crypto bill—after several attempts to pass crypto legislation in previous sessions—proposes cryptocurrencies offered as part of an investment contract would fall under SEC oversight, while those that qualify as commodities would be overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
“Everyone should understand what the SEC is doing right now is basically usurping congressional authority,” Sacks said. “It should be Congress that makes the law. If Congress wants to ban crypto exchanges in the United States and prevent the citizens of the United States from owning crypto, let Congress do it. It should not be up to Gensler to do that.”
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