U.S. & Russia eyeing Bitcoin: a moment of critical mass for crypto?

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are at a tipping point as two rival major world powers – the U.S. and Russia – both appear to be moving towards state acceptance of digital money, affirms Nigel Green – the CEO of global financial giant deVere Group.

The bold assertion from Nigel Green comes as the Biden administration is preparing an executive order for release as early as next month to set out a comprehensive government strategy on cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is backing his government’s proposal to promote Bitcoin mining in the country through clear taxation and regulatory measures.

“We need to regulate, not ban,” said the director of the financial policy department of the Russian Ministry of Finance, Ivan Chebeskov.

Elsewhere, the UK’s former Health Secretary during the pandemic, Matt Hancock, writes in CityAM on Friday: “The mainstream arrival of cryptocurrencies is set to shake the foundations of banking… the centuries-old idea you need a bank to make a payment is coming to an end.”

Nigel Green says: “Two rival world powers, the U.S. and Russia, are both now seemingly scrambling to beat each other in the move towards accepting and regulating Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies at a federal level.

“Whilst they remain fundamentally politically and ideologically opposed, both Washington and Moscow appear to be coming to the same consensus that in a digital age, traditional fiat currencies are on borrowed time and have been for a while.”

He continues: “Despite currently having the world’s reserve currency, it seems the U.S. knows the future is inevitably digital. This would explain why Biden is rushing a directive that would place the White House in a central role overseeing plans to set policies and regulate digital assets.

“For his part, Putin will appreciate the obvious advantages of cryptocurrencies for his country as they allow Russia to sidestep U.S. sanctions and circumnavigate the global SWIFT banking system that’s dominated by the U.S. central bank.”

Nigel Green goes on to add: “Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have already changed the way the world handles money, does business, makes transactions and manages assets. 

“But it feels the market is now at a tipping point.” 

It’s partly for this reason, earlier this week, the deVere CEO challenged the IMF’s demands for El Salvador to drop Bitcoin as legal tender.

He noted: “The IMF asking a pioneering sovereign nation to drop a future-focused financial policy that attempts to bring it out of financial instability and a reliance on another country’s currency shows the institution to be on the wrong side of history.

“Bitcoin is the world’s largest digital currency –- and digital is the inevitable future of money. For the IMF not to recognise this is baffling.”

Nigel Green concludes: “There’s a sense that Bitcoin and crypto is headed towards a moment of critical mass, at which a new way of doing things crosses a threshold.”

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deVere Group is one of the world’s largest independent advisors of specialist global financial solutions to international, local mass affluent, and high-net-worth clients.  It has a network of more than 70 offices across the world, over 80,000 clients and $12bn under advisement.