Another crypto-skeptic United States senator is on the loose, with Democrat Jon Tester boldly stating that he sees “no reason why” crypto should exist.
Tester, Montana’s senior senator, has been a member of the Senate Banking Committee since 2007. He is also a member of the Senate Banking Committee. This committee is a key player in the ongoing U.S. Crypto regulation debate.
During a Dec. 11 appearance on NBC’s Meet the PressTester argued that as crypto has no real value at all, the sector shouldn’t be regulated, as that would give it legitimacy.
“It’s not been able to pass the smell test for me. I haven’t been able find anyone who can explain to me why synthetics aren’t working. […] which means nothing,” he said, adding that:
“The 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.”
In line with such thinking, Tester then went on to state that he sees “no reason why this stuff should exist” at all.
The crypto community wasn’t shy about slamming the senator’s anti-crypto remarks and his self-admitted lack of crypto knowledge, with user @BS0064 sayingthat it’s “always good to see people who have no idea what they’re talking about to express really strong opinions on the matter.”
Also, @blocknonprofit argued, “it is real… imagine all those cryptos are just tech stocks not traded on traditional exchanges used today.”
Tester’s most-recent testy comments come just a couple of weeks after he told media startup Semafor that the sector was “all bullshit” and that he can’t “figure out what supports it.”
Semafor’s 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: “finally, there are more people blowing the bullshit whistle.”
Bernie Sanders was at least more diplomatic, stating that he’s “not a big fan” of crypto.
Related: Senate Banking Committee Democrats warn SoFi not to meet its compliance date
Commenting on the article via Twitter, Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann suggested that since the FTX debacle went down, “Dems suddenly feel free to say what they really think about the crypto industry.”
Dems feel more free after FTX to express their opinions about crypto industry.
Yesterday, Jon Tester said to our reporter that he believes the whole thing is “bullshit.” Warren, Brown and Sanders had their own words. https://t.co/LzbCM9SkJD
— Jordan Weissmann (@JHWeissmann) December 1, 2022