Another crypto-skeptic US senator is on the loose, with Democrat Jon Tester boldly saying he sees “no reason why” there should be encryption.
Tester is Montana’s senior senator and has held a seat there since 2007. He also serves on the Senate Banking Committee, which is one of the key players involved in the ongoing debate over US crypto regulation.
During a December 11 appearance on NBCs Meet the PressTester argued since crypto has no real value at all, the sector should not be regulated, as that would give it legitimacy.
“It couldn’t pass the smell test for me. I couldn’t find anyone who could explain to me what it is other than synthetic […] which means nothing,” he said, adding:
“The problem is if we regulate it, and I pointed this out to some of the regulators here a week or two ago, if we regulate it, it might give people the ability to think it’s real .”
In line with such thinking, Tester then said that he sees “no reason why this stuff should exist” at all.
The crypto community hasn’t been shy about the Senator’s anti-crypto comments and his self-confessed lack of crypto knowledge, with user @BS0064 saying it’s “always good to see people who have no idea what they’re doing say they really express. strong opinions on the subject.”
Also, @blocknonprofit argued, “it’s true… imagine all those cryptos are just tech stocks that aren’t traded on traditional exchanges used today.”
Tester’s latest testy comments come a few weeks after he told media startup Semafor that the sector was “all bullshit” and that he “can’t figure out what supports it.”
A Semafor article on December 1 was also littered with negative crypto stances from a handful of Democratic senators, with crypto-hater Elizabeth Warren noting: “Finally, more people are blowing the bullshit whistle.”
Bernie Sanders was at least more diplomatic, saying he’s not a “big fan” of crypto.
Related: Senate Banking Committee Democrats warn SoFi about meeting compliance deadline
Commenting on the article via Twitter, Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann suggested that since the FTX debacle went down, “suddenly the Dems are free to say what they really think about the crypto industry.”
After FTX, Dems suddenly seem to know what they really think about the crypto industry.
Jon Tester told our reporter yesterday that he thinks the whole thing is “bullshit”. Warren, Brown, and Sanders also had words. https://t.co/LzbCM9SkJD
— Jordan Weissmann (@JHWeissmann) December 1, 2022
