Will Joe Biden Let China Win The Global Crypto Race?

Earlier this month, Roslyn Layton of the American Enterprise Institute sent the US Senate a blunt message, warning the regulators were letting the Chinese win many races, not least the one for leadership in the cryptosphere.

Her Senate Policy Letter went unremarked to most US media, but was picked up in Asia though, where many of China’s neighbors realize that the roll out of the digital yuan is quite significant. The Asia Times stated in an op-ed that Either the US leads on crypto, or China will.

While the Trump administration has mostly been occupied with leveling the playing field between the US and China in terms of trade, they haven’t done much for the world of crypto.

Hash rate

With Bitcoin trading well above $20k and digital currencies being all the rage because of the pandemic, it is clear that however manages to start a digital currency on a global level, has a leadership position which others will envy. And it looks like China has done just that in the past few years.

Ms Layton stated in no uncertain terms that:

Chinese crypto miners have expanded blockchain ledgers so much that they now control the two biggest cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin and Ether. A tracking map by the University of Cambridge in the U.K. indicates China’s grip on Bitcoin’s hash rate is at about 65%

However, she also sees a possibility for President-elect Joe Biden to take back the initiative and let the US have the technological edge again, stating:

Democrats and Republicans agree on the need to revive economic growth, particularly when American innovation can be a catalyst for it. Both sides agree on the challenge posed by China and have made it a priority for the U.S. to win the race on technology innovation

Internet Payment

In the past policymakers have repeatedly threatened that they would regulate cryptocurrencies out of existence if blockchain would ever become anything more than an internet payment tool.

As long as Bitcoin was the official currency of sites on the dark web, such as the Silk Road, where it was used by dealers, people traffickers and fraudsters, there was nothing to fear.

Now that China has launched its own version of a digital currency and Facebook is planning a 2021 roll out of its own stablecoin called Diem (formerly Libra), the race is on.

We’ll soon find out if President Joe Biden is a fan of crypto or not.

Inauguration day

At this moment, it still looks like Max Keiser’s prediction, which we highlighted the first time we asked whether Biden was good news for Bitcoin, is about to come through. Keiser said:

A Biden win will lock China’s global supremacy, crash the US dollar, send Bitcoin to $400,000. This is because $100,000,000,000 in global managed funds will start allocating into Bitcoin to escape. Expect Bitcoin well above $28k by Inauguration Day.

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