REGULATORS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT CRACK DOWN ON CRYPTO'S BAD ACTORS. CONGRESS HAS YET TO TAKE ACTION

While the scandals in the cryptocurrency industry seem to never end, Washington policymakers appear to have little interest in pushing through legislation to codify the structure of the industry.

The latest shoe to drop is Binance’s multibillion-dollar settlement with U.S. authorities and the resignation of its CEO this week. Before that came the conviction of FTX founder Sam BankmanFried for stealing billions from customers and the implosion of smaller crypto companies that cost investors large sums of money.

When cryptocurrencies collapsed and a number of companies failed last year, Congress considered multiple approaches for how to regulate the industry in the future. However, most of those efforts have gone nowhere, especially in this chaotic year that has been dominated by geopolitical tensions, inflation and the upcoming 2024 election.

In fact, the appetite for new rules seems more diminished than ever.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that existing regulations already apply to cryptocurrency at a news conference announcing the $4 billion settlement with Binance: “I think today’s actions show that we are serious about enforcing strong regulations that are already in place to make sure that illegal transactions are not fostered by cryptocurrency entities,” she said.

“In cases like this, where there are violations of a truly egregious nature,” she said “of course we want to make sure our tools stay up to date and are adjusted so that we can address emerging threats. We believe we have strong tools and we have been increasingly deploying them to counter this type of abuse.”

And a group of more than 100 mostly Democratic lawmakers in October said the responsibility for preventing the use of crypto to finance terrorism belongs to the White House, calling for the Biden Administration to act.