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One month ago on July 17, the price of one Bitcoin price hovered around $3o,000. Today, the leading cryptocurrency is trading hands at nearly $47,000. meaning the flagship cryptocurrency has increased by 48% during the last 30 days.
What's more, that 56% rise came amid several controversies in recent weeks.
President Biden’s infrastructure bill
Arguably the biggest story in recent weeks has been the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that passed a vote in the U.S. Senate.
The language of that bill altered tax reporting requirements in such a way as to define certain actors in the digital assets industry as “brokers.” Those captured by said language included non-custodial crypto companies such as mining firms, who claimed they did not—nor could not—gather the requisite information to remain compliant.
The bill will now be reviewed by the U.S. House in the autumn.
Several U.S. Senators, including even Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), claimed the bill would be damaging to the crypto industry. However, despite the immediate fallout of the bill, Bitcoin’s price remained on an upward trajectory.
The SEC vs. crypto
Alongside the controversy of the infrastructure bill, Bitcoin was facing some stiff criticism from Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler.
In an exclusive interview with CNBC, Gensler echoed previous calls from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) about the need to provide robust consumer protection to the crypto industry.
“We’re an investment protection agency and right now this asset class, Bitcoin and the hundreds of other coins that investors are trading at, is a speculative asset class. What we want to do is provide some of the basic protections against fraud and manipulation,” Gensler told CNBC.
He also suggested a Bitcoin ETF in the United States may be a long time coming, that cryptocurrencies are not money, and that they facilitate crime.
Despite criticism from senators and regulators alike, Bitcoin continues to mount a massive recovery since its latest Summer slump.