SEC Commissioner Compares Banning Bitcoin to Shutting Down the Internet

According to Hester Peirce, the SEC Commissioner banning bitcoin would be equivalent to closing down the internet.

Peirce as commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) communicated her stance on governments banning Bitcoin in addition to cryptocurrency regulation.

The SEC Commissioner was invited for an interview at Investing in Crypto – Marketwatch. She was questioned about the possibility of the commission authorizing Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year.

For many years Peirce has been playing a large part in compelling SEC to approve Bitcoin ETF. In fact, at a point, she was even referred to as the crypto mom since that is how pro the digital asset she is.

She answered the interviewer’s concern on behalf of many crypto users that whether Bitcoin could be banned. There was no denying the fact that while crypto is decentralized the government can always take to banning it altogether. However, Peirce positively affirmed that had Bitcoin to be banned then the internet would need to be shut down. This is a hurdle that Bitcoin and as a matter of fact other tokens have already passed earlier on in their struggle.

Peirce added that she just cannot see how it could be banned. She called the action of banning it foolishly on part of the government if it at all tried to do it.

However, she did caution that the government could definitely make the effort of banning cryptocurrencies. She added that government could stop it but people would still have access to it thus making it problematic to stop it outrightly.

She also brought to notice the problem that came with banning Bitcoin or other digital tokens and assets. According to her and very rightly so banning crypto will limit the innovation that surrounds these digital assets like Bitcoin.

It is the era of technological innovation and cryptocurrencies and other digital assets have a big role to promote this kind of innovation. If they are banned then it puts the innovation factor at a halt too.

On being asked whether this year the SEC would finally approve the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund she expressed her ignorance. The commissioner while acknowledging that this was a big question replied that she did not know about it either. According to her the change with respect to SEC’s chairman has a huge bearing on the answer to this question. The SEC is all set to welcome its new chairman Gary Gensler who shall set the ball rolling with respect to Bitcoin ETFs.

She brought the attention to Canada and pointed how the country has already made approvals with respect to some Bitcoin ETFs. She said that this reflected how the underlying market worked and how accepting others are to it.

With Canada already having approved EFTs, the US is left behind in terms of innovation. The US would never want to be left behind and therefore, it’s not long before when the US SEC would also approve it.

She added that they really needed to frame a structured fit for the crypto industry. In her parting note, she showed her optimism with respect to the new chairman who according to her has deep knowledge on the subject.