There is a latest indication that the Washington is preparing to exert its power over the digital currencies, as the treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Monday, he has very serious concerns about the cryptocurrencies, including the one being developed by Facebook Inc.
Mr. Mnuchin said that the cryptocurrencies pose a national security threat, he told this in a briefing at the White House, because cryptocurrencies can be easily used to fund illicit activities. According to him, the Trump administration was “not comfortable” with the latest move of Facebook’s plans to start a digital payment system, which is called Libra.
President Trump warned Facebook Inc that it must seek a banking charter, and need to follow all the bank regulations, if social media company wants to be in digital currency business. There are series of warnings came by President Trump, via Twitter posts in last week, in which he was not a fan of cryptocurrencies and that because of their volatile value and “based on thin air.”
If look at the past two years, we haven’t seen any notable statement by the Trump over the cryptocurrencies in spite of their growing popularity. Mnuchin thinks that it’s not a threat to financial system, but for the sake of potential consumer protection issue, there should be new technology for moving, storing and transferring money.
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