Hester Peirce, an American lawyer and Commissioner at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said that a government ban on Bitcoin would be foolish. She added that it would be hard to stop anyone from trading in digital currencies.
During a virtual panel discussion organized by MarketWatch, Peirce highlighted the importance of a clear crypto regulatory framework in the US. “I think we were past that point of banning Bitcoin in the US very early on because you’d have to shut down the internet,” the SEC Commissioner said.
The price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency has grown significantly in the last few months. Bitcoin started this year at a price level of approximately $29,000. As of writing, the digital asset is trading near $59,000 with a market cap of $1.1 trillion.
Peirce is a well-known Bitcoin-friendly lawyer in the US. The crypto community gave Peirce the title of ‘Crypto Mom’. She expressed her optimism to build a good regulatory framework in the US for the treatment of Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
"Our approach has been much more of a 'say no and tell people to wait' approach, so we need to turn that around, be willing to work to build a framework that is appropriate for this industry," Peirce added.
Bitcoin Optimism
During an interview with Fox Business in January 2021, Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami, said that the city is planning to allow its citizens to pay taxes and fees through Bitcoin. Suarez also mentioned in a recent interview that the US has the ability to provide clean energy for Bitcoin mining. The latest statements from Peirce and Suarez show that there is optimism regarding the future of Bitcoin in the US. Despite the lack of a clear regulatory framework in the US, cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms are reporting a massive surge in demand from retail and institutional investors.
