A bipartisan group of senators was able to reach a compromise on the issue of making changes to the bill aimed at tax collections from cryptocurrency companies, which included everyone who is at least somehow connected with this type of asset. But when voting in the Senate on these amendments, there were dissenters. The consent of all 100 senators was required. Despite the compromise reached between Republicans, Democrats, and the Treasury Department, the amendment did not receive unanimous support. As it became known, 87-year-old Senator Richard Shelby opposed such an initiative. He refused to support any amendments if his proposal on defense spending was not considered.
A fairly large number of comments from the cryptocurrency community have already been made on this issue. One of its leaders, Mike Novogratz, noted that it is time for the Senate to consider a bill that would expel all people over 80 years old from it. The world is changing too fast for a meeting of 70-80-year-old retirees to make all the important decisions. "We've known for a long time that we didn't have enough resources and connections," said Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, adding that her group for the protection of interests in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain last year had a budget that was about 1% of the budget of the American Bankers Association. "The crypto industry has realized that they need to invest in Washington," Smith said.
Thus, the proposed amendments, which gave an exact explanation of who is a cryptocurrency broker, did not pass in the Senate and a new bill for $500 billion will be adopted without them, which creates quite big problems for the crypto community. Of course, we can talk about the fact that such tax changes and clarifications will be adopted later, but it will be much more difficult to do this than now, and it is not known how long it will take.
Now, cryptocurrency lobbyists, who were actually caught off guard by the antics of one of the senators during the vote, are sure to face a number of problems in the legislative battle of the nascent industry. The fact that it was not possible to achieve a change in the rules of tax reporting on working with cryptocurrencies will now bring quite a lot of problems to market participants who will only be engaged in going into the shadows – they have nothing else to do since many simply do not have access to the required reporting of tax authorities.
Cryptocurrency supporters also say that the defeat of the Senate shows the need for more organization and money, as the growing industry is increasingly attracting the attention of not only investors but also politicians. Now, the defenders of the cryptocurrency will have the opportunity to change the situation in the House of Representatives only at the autumn session in September of this year, but now a number of procedural problems will create much greater difficulties in this direction. But these are just the flowers: then the lobbying battle will go to the Internal Revenue Service, or in other words, to the US Tax Service, since it is them who writes the rules for subsequent implementation into law, and this process can take years.
But there are also positive aspects. Now it is clear exactly who in the Senate is interested in this topic and supports its promotion, and who else can be lured to the side of the digital economy. Crypto-lobbyists should step up their efforts to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
Strangely, bitcoin and other altcoins did not react to such a failure in any way, remaining trading near their highs in recent months. Bitcoin has already hit the $46,000 level and rolled back down a little. But do not underestimate the cunning of the market. There were similar attempts to return the bull market in January-February 2018, after the largest sale of bitcoin, and all these "bull markets" were engaged only in delaying new "onlookers" who were sorry to earn money quickly, after which the largest drains occurred. It is likely that history will also repeat itself this time, since everything points to this. If in the near future, buyers do not gain a foothold above the 200-day moving average, which just passes around $44,800, then it is better to wait with bitcoin purchases at the highs. A breakout and consolidation above the $46,700 level will provide excellent ground for further strengthening of the trading instrument in the area of the highs of $52,000 and $58,000. If the bulls fail to take the above level, a second instant sale to the levels of $41,100, $36,700, and $33,300 is not excluded.