Crypto Legislation Fight Shines Spotlight on Yellen

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Congress is in the process of passing an omnibus spending bill. Congress has already agreed to 99% of the legislation (spending over $1T). The only hiccup is wrangling over two competing amendments to the bill to clarify some language on a provision related to taxes/"know your customer" rules for the crypto industry. The bill's original language is vague. The two competing amendments attempt to clarify what a "broker" is (who has to abide the rules).

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Initially, lawmakers proposed a provision that would impose stricter rules on how "digital assets" are taxed to help fund the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. The provision would require brokers to report gains in a type of 1099 form, in addition to reporting transactions of more than $10,000 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is already mandated. But the provision was met with backlash, as crypto advocates pushed for lawmakers to clarify the definition of a "broker."

Currently, the bill defines a broker as "any person who (for consideration) is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person," which advocates say is too broad.

In an effort to change the definition, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Pat Toomey, R-Pa. and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., introduced an amendment on Wednesday that explicitly excludes miners and developers. Their amendment has strong support from the crypto community.

But on Thursday, Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Mark Warner, D-Va. and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., submitted their own amendment. It reportedly changes the "broker" definition slightly, but not to the extent deemed necessary by those within the crypto space.
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More: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/06/com...ments-to-the-senates-infrastructure-bill.html

News leaked out that Janet Yellen was lobbying behind the scenes against the Wyden-Toomey-Lummis amendment. She is anti-crypto (surprise!).

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been lobbying against cryptocurrency legislation being proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and other senators as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, according to a Washington Post report published on Friday.
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It appears the crypto industry is going bare knuckle fighting...

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The US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been accused of corruption due to receiving $7.2 million in ‘speaking fees’ from just Citi bank and the Citadel hedge fund.

“Since much of America was locked down in 2020, those speeches are almost all Zoom calls, done from her home. $7.2 million total,” Bruce Fenton, a long time bitcoiner, says.

Yellen’s official limited disclosure reveals she received millions more from other banks like Barclays, BNP, UBS, and more.

That indicates that her incentives are completely misaligned because her government salary is just $221,400 a year, while just Citi has paid her more than $7 million.

Moreover while this sum might look like a small amount for an open bribe, Yellen’s wealth is estimated to be $20 million, so she has been given in one year almost half her net worth by just one bank.

She is now serving her real employers, the banks and not the United States government, as Ron Hammond, Director of Government Relations at the Blockchain Association, says:

“The public pressure is working as more Senators express concerns to us privately about the bill text, Treasury is pulling out all the stops to kill the Wyden amendment, general politics of the bill could force Sen. Schumer to say no amendments at all.”
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