Binance, SBF, ETH and Gensler Get Mentions at Republican Presidential Debate

Crypto
got
a
mention
at
the
Republican
presidential
debate
Wednesday
night
held
in
Tuscaloosa,
Alabama,
when
Vivek
Ramaswamy
was
asked
about
his
crypto
policy.

The
question
directed
towards
Ramaswamy
referenced
the
recent
guilty
plea
of
former
Binance
CEO
Changpeng
“CZ”
Zhao,
who
was
recently
charged
with

breaking
sanctions
and
money-transmitting
laws.

“Fraudsters,
criminals,
and
terrorists
have
been
defrauding
people
for
a
long
time,”
Ramaswamy
began.
“Our
regulations
need
to
catch
up
with
the
current
moment.”

“The
fact
that
SBF
was
able
to
do
what
he
did
FTX
shows
that
whatever
they
have
is
the
current
framework
isn’t
working,”
he
continued.

Ramaswamy
is
one
of
the
few
politicians
to
specifically
make
crypto
part
of
his
campaign.

Ramaswamy
announced
a
plan
to
drastically
reduce
the
SEC
workforce
and
relax
regulations
on
the
crypto
industry,
advocating
for
most
cryptocurrencies
to
be
treated
as
commodities
outside
the
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission’s
(SEC)
jurisdiction,

CoinDesk
recently
reported.

“It’s
nothing
short
of
embarrassing
that
Gary
Gensler,
the
SEC
chair,
couldn’t
even
confirm
in
front
of
Congress
whether
Ethereum
is
a
regulated
security,”
Ramaswamy
said.
“This
is
another
example
of
the
administrative
state
going
too
far.”

Robert
F.
Kennedy
Jr.
–
who
originally
ran
for
president
as
a
Democrat
and
is
now
a
declared
Independent
–

proposed
exempting
bitcoin
from
capital
gains
tax,
backing
the
dollar
with
assets
like
gold
and
bitcoin,
and
supporting
the
right
to
self-custody
bitcoin
and
run
blockchain
nodes,
aiming
to
strengthen
the
dollar
and
encourage
financial
innovation
and
privacy.

Central
Bank
Digital
Currencies
(CBDCs)
also
got
a
mention
during
the
debate,
with
Florida
Governor
Ron
DeSantis
saying
that
they’ll
be
“dead
on
arrival”
if
he’s
elected
president.
CBDCs
were
apparently
one
of
the
hottest
issues
in
Florida’s
politics
over
the
summer,

with
more
phone
calls
reportedly
coming
into
his
office
on
the
topic
than
the
usual
wedge
issues.

DeSantis
signed
a
bill
purporting
to
ban
CBDCs
into
law,

though
experts
cast
doubt
that
the
law
would
actually
do
anything.

Later
during
the
debate,

Ramaswamy
claimed
the
Jan.
6,
2021
assault
on
the
U.S.
Capitol
was
an
inside
job
and
that
the

great
replacement
theory
is
“a
basic
statement
of
the
Democratic
Party’s
platform.”