In the wake of yet another iteration of Prc'southward enduring crackdown on cryptocurrency, a particularly influential narrative on Crypto Twitter suggests that by banning Bitcoin (BTC), China has definitively put itself on the dark side of the struggle, while the commonage Due west must now resolutely throw its weight on the opposite side by embracing crypto.

Granted, this framework for thinking about the relationship between political power and decentralized finance is appealing for crypto allies. Yet the news coming out of the United States gives few reasons to believe that policymakers there come across the situation this manner.

It appears that U.South. elites are aptitude on preserving the incumbent financial order and restricting the growth of the digital asset infinite, if with a less heavy-handed toolset than their Chinese counterparts. This eye-of-the-road approach is more likely to land the U.South. somewhere in the centre of the dark/light continuum spanning from China to the still-unattainable ideal of a society that had embraced a fully disintermediated financial system.

Prc's many crypto bans

The Friday argument by the People'due south Bank of China that caused a short-lived crypto market crash is at least the 19th instance of a noticeable FUD wave that could be traced dorsum to the Asian superpower in the terminal 12 years. Not merely do the hostile moves historically neglect to deter the global growth of the crypto space — sometimes they spell massive advancements for Bitcoin and co. in the medium term.

U.Southward. regulators: More than of the aforementioned

Over in the U.South., Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler sabbatum downwards with The Washington Postal service's David Ignatius to specifically talk crypto. We haven't learned much new, equally Gensler chose to resort to a drove of tired analogies (and a few newer ones) to double downward on his controversial stance that most digital avails are securities. Talking about stablecoins, the SEC boss likened them to "poker chips at the casino."

Meanwhile, the nation'south largest cyberbanking regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, could finally become a permanent master in Cornell professor Saule Omarova. Omarova is a vocal critic of both big banks and crypto — as something allegedly benefitting "the dysfunctional financial system we already have."

Enforcement against crypto infrastructure?

The Treasury Department last week added Russo-Czech over-the-counter crypto platform Suex to the listing of Specially Designated Nationals with which U.Southward. persons are prohibited to deal. This marks the first time when a digital nugget services provider gets targeted by U.South. sanctions.

Suex got punished for allegedly helping cybercriminals process ransomware payments. While it is unlikely that many legitimate U.S. individuals and businesses take been moving funds through this particular banker, the move can be indicative of the Biden assistants's emerging policy of targeting centralized venues of the digital asset ecosystem.