CryptoCurrencyNews
BitcoinRegulationNews
We’re Looking ‘Very Carefully’ at Bitcoin: U.S. Treasury Sec. Mnuchin
By Josiah Wilmoth on 10/11/2017
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin says that the federal government is concerned about the use of bitcoin in illicit dark web markets.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Mnuchin stated that bitcoin is on the Treasury Department’s radar and that he is in conversations with regulators across the world about the correct approach to ensure that it is not used to make “illicit transfers of funds.”
“It’s something we are looking at very carefully and will continue to look at,” Mnuchin said. “The first issue and the most important issue is to make sure that people can’t use bitcoin for illicit activities. So we want to make sure that you don’t have the dark web funded in bitcoins. And that’s something that is a concern of ours today.”
He emphasized that although the Treasury does not have a specific timetable for the announcement of an official position on cryptocurrency or new regulations to govern this nascent asset class, the department has established working groups which are actively looking into bitcoin usage.
“And again [bitcoin is] something we’ll be watching very carefully,” he stressed.
The Treasury is one of many U.S. regulatory agencies beginning to take a more active role in regulating the cryptocurrency markets. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has very publicly stated its concerns about initial coin offerings (ICOs), many of which it says may violate federal securities laws. Similarly, the SEC has warned that celebrity ICO endorsements may be illegal in some cases if the token is later determined to be a security.
This year’s meteoric bitcoin price rally, meanwhile, has caught the attention of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which claims that far too few people are reporting cryptocurrency-related investment income on their tax returns. Earlier this year, a report revealed that the agency has paid a blockchain-tracing firm thousands of dollars to help them track down and identify bitcoin tax cheats. Moreover, the IRS has taken bitcoin exchange Coinbase to court in an attempt to force the company to hand over customer records so they can prosecute bitcoin tax cheats.
Featured image from Flickr/International Monetary Fund.
Twitter
Linkedin
Facebook
Reddit
Weibo
Posted in: Bitcoin Regulation, News Tagged in: bitcoin tax, steven mnuchin, treasury department
Posted by Josiah Wilmoth
Josiah is a former ancient and medieval literature teacher. He has been writing about cryptocurrency since 2014, and his work has been cited in Business Insider, NPR, and Yahoo! Finance. He lives in rural North Carolina with his wife and son. Email him directly at josiah.wilmoth(at)cryptocoinsnews.com.
All Posts Website
NextBitcoin Gold to Launch on November 12, But Will Anyone Care?
10/11/2017
PreviousEvery Ethereum Holder To Receive VIU Token Airdrop for Blockchain Video Platform
11/11/2017
Advertisement
Trending
$700 Million Stuck in 115,000 Unconfirmed Bitcoin Transactions
Bitcoin Price Continues Downward Trend, Dips Below $6,600
Hudreds of Millions of Dollars in Ether Stuck; Where Does Ethereum Go from Now?
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein Open to Bitcoin Trading Desk
Bitcoin Price Plunges Below $7,000 as Bitcoin Cash Surges 30%
Advertisement
Search
Search for:
Advertisement
Tags
analysis Australia bitcoin bitcoin atm bitcoin core bitcoin exchange bitcoin foundation Bitcoin price bitcoin regulation Bitcoin Unlimited bitfinex bitpay bitstamp block chain blockchain central banks china coinbase cryptocurrency dogecoin Ethereum News Ethereum price exchange fintech IBM ICO india investment japan litecoin mt gox okcoin paypal pboc price R3 regulation ripple Ross Ulbricht russia Segwit Segwit2x silk road south korea trading
Advertisement
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment