As tensions mount between the United States and China both at home and abroad, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) is fighting to keep investors linked to the Chinese government out of American cryptocurrency exchanges.
With more exchanges being formed across the country, Tuberville said crypto was "here to stay” and needed proper regulation. But the two regulating bodies, the SEC and FINRA, are “asleep at the wheel” when it comes to protecting American crypto investors.
“We all know they [China] are our number one adversary — the Republicans, Democrats, people across the country — but somebody needs to tell our financial regulators,” Tuberville said Monday on “The Larry Kudlow Show.”
Tuberville said one company, Prometheum, was recently given the rights to open a crypto exchange in the U.S. despite its biggest investor being controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
"What's going on with our regulators? There was several dozen people that applied for this, American companies, but they overlooked them and went to a company that is partly owned by the Chinese Communist Party," Tuberville said. "They'll be able to pick up any kind of data that goes through this exchange. It really hurts the American people."
Tuberville and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) are sponsoring a bill to keep CCP investors out of American crypto exchanges.
The bill would prohibit the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from registering a "digital commodity platform," or crypto exchange, owned in whole or in part by an entity organized or established by the Chinese government. It also would require the CFTC to revoke the registration of any exchange in the event "an entity with ties to the CCP acquires all or any part of the ownership of the entity."
"These regulators are asleep at the wheel," Tuberville told Kudlow. "It's just another thing that the Biden administration has let the Chinese do and get by with, and we got to put a stop to it."
Tuberville also blasted Biden during the interview for letting China establish a spy operation just 90 miles off the coast of Florida in Cuba.
"It's typical because President Biden since he's been there for two and a half years has showed weakness in everything that he's done," he said. "He let a balloon go all the way across our country without doing anything about it… It makes sense for China now to say, 'Hey, we can pretty much do anything we want.' So moving a spy office or whatever they call it into Cuba, it probably makes sense to them at this time. President Trump would have never put up with it."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com.
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