(The hill) – Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Sunday that federal agencies need to address the cryptocurrency market and “maybe” ban it after the high-profile crash of the FTX cryptocurrency market last month.
Brown, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, told NBC's "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd that the Treasury Department and "all the different agencies" need to get together and weigh any potential related action. with cryptocurrency. market.
“Maybe ban it, although banning it is very difficult because it will go overseas and who knows how it will work,” Brown said.
The United States is seeking the extradition of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried following the collapse of its cryptocurrency market in November.
Federal authorities accused Bankman-Fried of taking client funds and using them to finance a lavish lifestyle and investments in his Alameda Research business venture.
The FTX collapse alarmed regulatory agencies and spooked investors, raising new fears about the future of the digital currency market.
Last week, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing on the FTX collapse along with a separate House Financial Services Committee hearing.
Brown said on Sunday that the cryptocurrency market is a “complicated, unregulated pot of money” and that the problem was much bigger than FTX.
“So we have to get this right,” the senator said, adding that he has spoken with the Treasury Department to do a related review among regulatory agencies.
“I have spent much of the last eight and a half years in this job as chair of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs,” Brown added, “educating my colleagues and trying to educate the public about cryptocurrency and the dangers that come with it.” . it presents our security as a nation and the consumers who are deceived by them.”
