United States congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene stated that the GENIUS stablecoin invoice creates a “backdoor” for the federal government to successfully create a central financial institution digital forex, veiled as privately issued crypto tokens.
The lawmaker stated that regulated stablecoins function “useful surveillance capabilities,” which make them indistinguishable from CBDCs. In a separate social media publish, she added:
“This invoice regulates stablecoins and offers for the backdoor central financial institution digital forex. The Federal Reserve has been planning a CBDC for years, and it will open the door to maneuver you to a cashless society and into digital forex that may be weaponized towards you by an authoritarian authorities controlling your means to purchase and promote.”
Rep. Greene’s feedback echo a rising tide of people within the Bitcoin and crypto communities sounding the alarm on regulated stablecoins and the potential for these privately-issued tokens to change into captured by the state.
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The Bitcoin and crypto communities voice the identical issues
“The Genius Act forces stablecoins into CBDC compliance and management; functionally equivalent to a CBDC, with out the scary identify,” Bitcoin advocate Justin Bechler wrote in a July 19 X publish.
Saifedean Ammous, creator of “The Bitcoin Normal,” argued that the US greenback, in any type, is basically a central financial institution digital forex that’s already monitored by the state and more and more digital.
“Governments notice that in the event that they management stablecoins, they management monetary transactions,” Jean Rausis, co-founder of the Smardex decentralized buying and selling platform, stated.
The chief added that the power to freeze or rollback transactions and surveil centrally-managed stablecoins makes them indistinguishable from a CBDC.
The GENIUS invoice was amended in March to incorporate stricter anti-money-laundering provisions, sanctions compliance, and know-your-customer necessities, necessitating monetary surveillance and the power to censor transactions.
In October 2024, Curve Finance founder Dr. Michael Egorov advised Cointelegraph that centralized stablecoins carry the chance of regulatory seize, together with authorities seizure of the underlying fiat property held in financial institution accounts or custodial establishments backing the digital tokens.
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