Posted on 04/25/2021 11:45:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A BITCOIN crackdown could see the cryptocurrency "legislated" by the UK, EU, China and the US, an investment expert has told Express.co.uk - noting that Britain could "fall in line" with Joe Biden's reported plans.
Crypto markets plunged today after it was reported that the US President is planning to raise capital gains tax. Mr Biden is said to be considering nearly doubling tax to as high as 39.6 percent, from the current 20 percent. Cryptocurrency investors face higher taxes if Mr Biden presses ahead and the market responded respectfully – Bitcoin crashed 10 percent to $49,332 (£35,627), hitting the lowest level since early March.
But Chris Clothier, an investment manager at CG Asset Management, is not surprised.
He told Express.co.uk: “When governments want to enact financial control, capital control, they have lots of different tools at their disposal.
“A higher rate of capital gains tax would be one of those.
“But, equally, there are other historically precedence. In the Thirties, it was made illegal for private systems to hold gold in the US.
“They had to turn it into the treasury. It is not impossible for an asset to be outright banned or nationalised.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the UK fell in line.”
More than $200billion (£143.6billion) of value is thought to have been wiped off the cryptocurrency market today and concerns over a regulatory crackdown on Bitcoin continue to raise pulses.
India is planning to introduce a law to ban the trading or even ownership of cryptocurrencies and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned Bitcoin is an "extremely inefficient" way to move money and sees it mostly as a facilitator of "illicit finance”.
Mr Clothier, who has produced a special report on cryptocurrency, warned that authorities around the world are looking into how to regulate the coins.
He added: “It’s quite likely that other nations will follow suit, because of the fact that Bitcoin enables people to evade capital controls, launder money and avoid taxes.
“I can see that lots of countries will have reasons to try and restrict their use.
“I would not be surprised to see the UK, US, China and the EU legislating the use of cryptocurrency quite closely.
“Governments are very loath for there to be any type of money they cannot control and that has been the case for hundreds of years.
“They will be reluctant for Bitcoin to supplant and exist in fiat currencies – so measures like Biden’s are symptomatic of government resistance to these movements.”
But while Mr Clothier would steer clear of Bitcoin in the long run, he does not believe the signals today are an indication of an immediate crash.
He continued: “I think it’s dangerous to see a small drop in the price of Bitcoin and panic.
“The thing to say about Bitcoin is has a huge funnel of outcomes and possibilities. But none of them are set in stone.
“It is possible that Bitcoin will go on to be successful, but we think that it is likely to be highly volatile and there’s a pretty good chance it will end up being worthless.
“So for a conservative fund manager, it is not an appropriate asset to put in our portfolio.”
Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has previously warned against investing in crypto.
It stated: “If consumers invest, they should be prepared to lose all their money.
"Some investments advertising high returns from crypto assets may not be subject to regulation beyond anti-money laundering.
“Significant price volatility, combined with the difficulties valuing [Bitcoin] reliably, place consumers at a high risk of losses.”
Express.co.uk does not give financial advice. The journalists who worked on this article do not own cryptocurrency.
Ping
Is it just me, or is the only time governments step in to protect me from myself is when they’re trying to make money off me or keep me from making money off them?
It is not just you.
The tiny bit I know about Bitcoin makes me think there will be new versions of the pre-crackdown Bitcoin popping up very soon.
I suspect there is more than enough Dark Money in the world to fill the deepest ocean, if such currency was ever made physical.
A 40% capital gains tax. Perfect. You work to earn money and you pay taxes on it. You spend the money and you pay taxes on your purchases. You save the money and you earn nothing from it - but you lose money because inflation reduces its value. You invest the money you’ve already paid taxes on, and you pay another 40% tax on what your investment earns.
In 1775, the average English colonist paid 1-2% of their income in taxes. This, and the contention by England that they could tax the colonists when they wished, was enough to fuel the American Revolution. It’s astounding how much of the freedom that cost ~25,000 American colonial lives has been lost.
I have repeatedly warned that that the crackdowns like the ones discussed are coming and within 2 years bitcoins will be worth only a small fraction of what thet are today. As the great Rush used to say: DO NOT DOUBT ME ON THIS.
This is why Cramer and everyone is trying to push GameStop to use Crypto. It will hurt them.
bmp
Pin.
Bubble.
Pop.
Yep- see Biden raising capital gains tax to 40% if anyone DARES to make more than $1,000,000.
Can’t have any of those filthy po’ folk slumming with the. Richies, now, can we?
Gee,Dementia Joe, did your crackhead son pay taxes on his traitor money he got from China?
Bitcoin is Beanie Babies......
A satire painting of the tulip madness that saw the the price for tulips skyrocket then plunge. Then again a currency that circumvents the greedy hand of Governments is itself a revolt against madness.
The linked article was written on Friday.
Bitcoin is actually up 9% this morning, around $53,700.
Full disclosure...
I think there is a 50-50 chance that Bitcoin will ultimately go to $0.00.
In the meantime, this is one of the best car chase scenes in financial history!
The US isn’t the only country now run by its Deep State.
And Deep States dislike competition as much as they dislike dissent.
Buy on the dip!
Did you read the line about "...govts around the world looking to see how to regulate bitcoin.."?
Its not like the gold they forced US citizens to surrender - because you can't touch it.
You can cut up all the internet cabling in the US and elsewhere but Starlink is up and running so you cant cancel the internet.
But The Biden Inflation wave is coming and all your bank deposits are going to shrink and your purchasing power plummets.
It is because bitcoin is IMMUNE from the manipulations of governments and banks it is an investment option that deserves consideration.
PING!
This is what they call market manipulation. When the price is too high and they want to drive prices down.
If they could ban Bitcoin, then it would have been done a long time ago.
The only way to shutdown Bitcoin is to shutdown the Internet. In other words its not happening.
Biden doesn’t even know what Bitcoin is.
Add one more article to the hundreds of others:
https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/
The “hits” keep on coming! ;-)
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