Michael Hiltzik: With Democratic assent, House votes to open loopholes in crypto regulation
Money, as we all know, is the mother's milk of politics in America. It can look even more nourishing if you can manufacture it yourself.
That's surely what accounts for the solicitude that the cryptocurrency industry has been receiving from Congress.
The House on Wednesday passed a law reducing regulation of crypto, despite ample evidence that the asset class has been a haven for fraudsters, extortionists and worse.
The law will "make the United States safer for drug traffickers, for terrorist funders, for child and drug traffickers and those who buy and sell child pornography," said Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., listing a few of the documented users of crypto in recent years. "I did not know those groups had such proud advocates in Congress."
Casten may find himself in the House minority in more ways than one. Crypto promoters have managed to peel several Democrats in the House and Senate away from the party's strong opposition to reducing regulations on the asset class.
Earlier this month, bipartisan majorities in both chambers voted to roll, and the majorities in neither chamber were large enough to overrule a veto.
