US Attempts to Baptize Crypto Amid Historic Consumer Price Inflation

Key Points

• Consumer Price Inflation highest since 1991
• US regulators trying to tax and legitimize crypto assets
• Crypto investors in a fix regarding the anonymity and control of their assets

Pune(CoinChapter.com): October 2021 witnessed the highest jump in consumer prices in the last three decades, for the United States. The consumer price index stats released by the Bureau of Labour Statistics marked a stark 6.2% increment year-on-year, the highest since 1991. Rising out of the reluctance of the central banks to roll back the Covid-19 induced expansionary monetary policy, high inflation has led to the state delivering negative real interest rates. Supply chain jitters and high energy prices (the gasoline index up 6.1% from September 2021) are the common reasons cited while dismissing the uptick of prices as ‘transitory’ by the regulators.

US Congress passes the Infrastructure Bill

However, the spectrum of response to contain the decreasing value of the US dollar is much broader this time. Along with the macro tools, the government is proactive to baptize crypto-currency this time. The US Congress passed the infamous infrastructure bill, wherein most of the crypto businesses registered in the US (eg. Kraken, Coinbase, and native DEXs, etc.), would be considered as brokers and will have to report their users and transactions to the IRS via 1099 forms.

SEC calls DeFi platforms to the table

The SEC has also come out with an advertisement on Nov 9, inviting decentralized finance platforms to engage and figure out ways to legitimize the new financing system. ‘Crypto is now part of the vernacular, whether on news, social media, entertainment, and in investment portfolios’ quoted the SEC commissioner Caroline Crenshaw. 

While maintaining the nay stance on the bitcoin as an investment asset, Steve Mnuchin, former treasury secretary of the US, cites the Blockchain technology as being particularly useful in finance and fintech. Mnuchin also wants to see bitcoin put under ‘complete regulatory and BSA (Bank secrecy act) compliance’.

Trying to centralize the decentralized

In the hindsight are the record high adoptions of the crypto assets by retail investors in the US. Understanding the inefficiency of the centralized systems in maintaining the worth of their money, investors prefer alternate avenues to park their money, avoiding mainstream finance. With the FED now looking to legitimize crypto assets, the investors risk losing the exclusivity of their investments in the parallel finance system.  The whole point of trusting the decentralized system could be lost if the central banks have control over them, in upcoming times.