Watch Washington's Senate Debate If Buying Weed With Bitcoin is Bad
Legislators gathered on Wednesday afternoon to hold a public hearing on a measure that would prohibit cannabis firms in the state of Washington from working with bitcoin. CoinDesk reported last week that SB 5264, a bill presented by two Washington state senators, would ban businesses working in the marijuana industry from both selling products for bitcoin as well as purchasing them with the digital currency. At the time, primary sponsor Sen. Ann Rivers said that the measure was intended to boost financial transparency to the state’s cannabis sector as part of an effort to “help move it out....
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Washington inadvertently gave a big boost to the very currency they are concerned with. After the first of two Senate hearings concluded on November 18, Bitcoin began trading at highs above the $750 mark. This come, however, after the value dipped to $600 at the beginning of the hearing. Two phrases seemed to be investors’ big takeaways from this hearing. First, the committee acknowledged Bitcoin as a “legal means of exchange.” Washington up until then hadn’t been so forthcoming with its thoughts on the currency. Second, Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman said, “We all....
After Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana, stocks such as CBIS and MJNA saw gains as high as 750%. MJNA moved from $0.03 to $0.36 a share, and CBIS rose from $0.032 a share to $0.293. They went through a stagnation period, then decline and now seem to have leveled off. Bitcoin went from around $100 to over $1,100 and since has been settling in the low $600. What do marijuana stocks have to tell us about Bitcoin? First off, the buzz was greater than the implementation. After weed became legalized people expected widespread adopts, for the Federal Government to get on board....
Representatives from the Treasury, the DOJ and Homeland Security all told members of Congress that federal regulators need to watch Bitcoin more closely. Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman joined in a chorus of her colleagues by telling a Senate committee hearing that “criminals are nearly always early adopters of new technologies and financial systems, and virtual currency is no exception.” Such criminals include money launderers and drug dealers, they claim, who conceal their actions via anonymous, decentralized currencies such as Bitcoin. The hearing was held by the Senate....
Read our earlier post about the French Senate Hearing's outcome here. Watch the videos below:
Bitcoin and other digital currencies will get to make their voices heard before a Senate committee hearing November 18 in Washington. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs called a hearing to learn more about Bitcoin and what it calls “virtual currencies.” Five government agencies will send their representatives to offer perspective. Representing the digital currency economies will be Patrick Murck, from the Bitcoin Foundation; Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Bitcoin startup Circle; and Jerry Brito, a Bitcoin researcher from George Mason University. Brito himself makes....