Bitcoin, Libra and other cryptocurrencies alike should follow the same legal path as traditional financial instruments, believes Michael Pompeo, the US Secretary of State and aide to President Trump.
“My sense is this: We should use the same framework that we use to regulate all other electronic financial transactions today,” said Pompeo regarding cryptocurencies. “The same set of requirements that apply to things flowing through SWIFT or flowing though our financial institutions ought to apply to those transactions as well.”
He stated that anonymous transactions could lead to weaker global security and increase terrorist activity.
“Look, the risk with anonymous transactions is one that we all know well. We know this from 9/11 and terror activity that took place in the 15 years preceding that, where we didn’t have good tracking; we didn’t have the capacity to understand money flows and who was moving money. It has helped keep the entire world secure and to fight terrorism and other nefarious activity, criminal activity as well, by having access to this information. We need to preserve a financial system, a global financial system, that protects that,” said Pompeo.
