The U.S. guidance needs to find the “sweet spot” in its oversight of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, Mick Mulvaney, shtick director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said on Wednesday.
Beg at the Future of Fintech conference hosted by research and analysis firm CB Acuities, Mulvaney, who also heads the Office of Management and Budget, touted his pro-bitcoin credentials, noting that he is fiscally unprogressive and “was one of the founding members of the bitcoin caucus and blockchain caucus.”
Sympathies aside, he demonstrated that regulation is important to protect investors – but the government should not inhibit potential investors or developers from entering the market through distressing laws or regulations.
Mulvaney explained:
“We knew at an early point in bitcoin that as with any reveal financial technology we needed to find that sweet spot … if Mt. Gox behoved a regular occurrence it dramatically undermines confidence in the markets and prevents novelty. And if we over-regulate and discourage people from entering the marketplace, that has bad consequences too.”
In other statements, Mulvaney said, “we’re looking for that Goldilocks [path] in the middle.”
He defined the concerns that might arise with a lack of investor haven, saying: “It’s a new and innovative technology, it’s a nonbanking system, it’s whatever. If people even so can’t get access to their own money, that’s a problem. So the law’s functioning correctly there.”
What Mulvaney is disquieting to accomplish now, he argued, is ensuring that the application of an existing law doesn’t surpass to unintended consequences.
“If for some reason we’re looking at you and the only way we can look at you is into done with the lens of the bricks and mortar financial institution, and because we do that it has this irritable or absurd result, that’s what we’re trying to identify and to prevent,” he intended.
Mick Mulvaney image via CB Insights
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