Elon Musk has once again hit back at U.S. regulators coming for crypto. Talking at the Code Conference which concluded Wednesday, Musk gave his opinions on the current regulatory battle being waged between the United States government and the crypto space. The CEO said that regulators should not try to regulate the crypto market, and asked the government to “do nothing” to regulate the space.
During the infrastructure bill fiasco, Musk had called upon the government to avoid rushing to regulate the crypto industry. Asking that careful considerations be made before putting into law regulations that would harm the crypto industry.
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Musk also explained that it was impossible for the government to completely destroy crypto with regulations. The billionaire admitted that the government could slow down its growth, but there was no way it would eliminate cryptos completely. Speaking on this, Musk said, “It is not possible to, I think, destroy crypto, but is possible for governments to slow down its advancement.”
The CEO has always been vocal about his support for cryptocurrencies, with his tweets pushing meme coin Dogecoin to become a top 10 cryptocurrency by market cap. An early supporter, he has always believed in the value that cryptocurrencies posed for the future of technology. Tesla, on which Musk serves as CEO, had earlier in the year begun accepting bitcoin payments for its electric vehicles.
Crypto Mining And The Environment
Musk also commented on the ongoing mining crackdowns in China. The government of China had completely banned the mining of cryptocurrencies in the country, citing energy concerns as the reason for the crackdowns. Talking on this, the Tesla CEO admitted that China has had “significant electricity generation issues.” Musk explained that the crackdowns can be attributed to the power outages that had been experienced in the southern parts of the country. And said that crypto mining may have been a contributing factor to these power outages.
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Musk’s own company Tesla had halted bitcoin payments for its vehicles shortly after the automobile manufacturer had announced it would be accepting the cryptocurrency for its cars. Tesla had also cited energy concerns as being the main reason behind this and would consider accepting the cryptocurrency again once the energy consumption of its mining activities reaches at least a 50% renewable energy threshold.
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The SpaceX CEO also pointed out that there might be a more sinister reason behind the crackdown on crypto by the Chinese government. Given that cryptocurrencies cannot be controlled by the government, it poses a threat to the control that governments possess over their citizens. “I suppose cryptocurrency is fundamentally aimed at reducing the power of a centralized government. They don’t like that,” Musk stated.
Featured image from CNBC TV18, chart from TradingView.com