Another crypto-skeptic United States senator is on the loose, with Democrat Jon Tester boldly stating that he sees โno reason whyโ crypto should exist.
Tester is the senior senator of Montana and has held a seat there since 2007. He also serves on the Senate Banking Committee, which is one of the key players involved in the ongoing debate over U.S. crypto regulation.
During a Dec. 11 appearance on NBCโs Meet the Press, Tester essentially argued that as crypto has no real value at all, the sector shouldnโt be regulated as that would give it legitimacy.
โIt’s not been able to pass the smell test for me. I have not been able to find anybody who’s been able to explain to me what’s there other than synthetics […] which means nothing,โ he said, adding that:
โThe problem is if we regulate it, and I pointed this out to some of the regulators here a week or two ago, if we regulated it, it may give it the ability of people to think it’s real.โ
In line with such thinking, Tester then went on to state that he sees โno reason why this stuff should existโ at all.
The crypto community wasnโt shy about slamming the senator’s anti-crypto remarks and his self-admitted lack of crypto knowledge with user @BS0064 noting that it’s โalways good to see people who have no idea what theyโre talking about to express really strong opinions on the matter.โ
While @blocknonprofit argued, โit is realโฆ imagine all those cryptos are just tech stocks not traded on traditional exchanges used today.โ
Testerโs most-recent testy comments come just a couple of weeks after he told Semafor that the sector was โall bullshitโ and that he canโt โfigure out what supports it.โ
Semaforโs Dec. 1 article was also littered with negative crypto stances from a bunch of Democrat senators, with crypto-hater Elizabeth Warren going in hard by noting: โfinally, there are more people blowing the bullshit whistle.โ
While Bernie Sanders spoke in more diplomatic terms, stating that heโs โnot a big fanโ of crypto.
Related: Senate Banking Committee Democrats warn SoFi about meeting its compliance deadline
Commenting on the article via Twitter, Semaforโs Washington editor Jordan Weissmann suggested that since the FTX debacle went down โDems suddenly feel free to say what they really think about the crypto industry.โ
After FTX, it seems Dems suddenly feel free to say what they really think about the crypto industry.
Jon Tester told our reporter yesterday that he thinks the entire thing is “bullshit.” Warren, Brown, and Sanders also had words. https://t.co/LzbCM9SkJD
โ Jordan Weissmann (@JHWeissmann) December 1, 2022
