Yahoo Finance Live highlights how U.S. lawmakers, retail investors, and institutional buyers are viewing crypto currencies following the collapse of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest.
Video Transcript
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DAVE BRIGGS: Well, barring a continued market meltdown, the financial story that promises to persist well into the new year is the FTX collapse, which took a surprise turn this week with the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried. The Congressional hearing examining how it happened went on without SBF and provided, frankly, very few answers. Hearings did, however, pour gasoline on the fire that is the crypto debate. Listen.
BRAD SHERMAN: For five years, I’ve been trying to ban American investments in crypto. I’m the only member of the House to get an F from the only crypto-promoting organization that rates members of Congress. My fear is that we’ll view Sam Bankman-Fried as just one big snake in a crypto Garden of Eden. The fact is, crypto is a garden of snakes.
DAVE BRIGGS: And that Shakespearean-like sonnet from California Congressman Brad Sherman, who later joined us to double down on cryptocurrency.
BRAD SHERMAN: Why do they want a different currency? The dollar is pretty good. And the answer is the dollar is really bad if you want to engage in tax evasion, sanctions evasion, evade bankruptcy court, which I know Sam Bankman-Fried is focused on now.
DAVE BRIGGS: So there’s one side, but we believe in a little barbell-like balance. So striking back at the snake analogy was “The Wolf of All Street’s” host, crypto bro Scott Melker.
SCOTT MELKER: Sam Bankman-Fried is a criminal. This is not an indictment of the crypto industry. It has nothing to do with the actual assets or the asset class. It’s simply fraud. It’s disingenuous to pretend that this is because of crypto.
DAVE BRIGGS: OK. But a recent poll showed just 8%– 8%– of Americans have a positive view of cryptocurrencies. For context, even Congress has a 23% favorability. Trust is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to build in the months ahead and has to start with regulation. That, of course, is going to take years.
Meanwhile, the question right in front of us– who’s right, who’s wrong, the wolf or the snake– actually falls on Dr. J, Jared Blikre. Jared, the fact that FTX was a crypto exchange made this, quote, “old-fashioned embezzlement” more or less likely? What did crypto have to do with the crime?
JARED BLIKRE: I think crypto, …….
