Shambhavi Soni
In a tweet responding to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on Friday, Elon Musk encouraged senators studying the Senate infrastructure bill’s crypto tax provision not to “choose technology winners or losers in cryptocurrency technology.”
- After calling the most recent proposed adjustment to the contentious tax clause “disastrous,” the Tesla CEO and crypto influencer wrote, “There is no crisis that requires fast legislation.”Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who wrote the original tax provision, and Mark Warner (D-Va.) submitted an amendment late Thursday aimed at watering down the provision by excluding proof-of-work mining and entities selling hardware or software that gives individuals control of private keys for digital assets. On Saturday, lawmakers are set to vote on a $1 trillion infrastructure measure.
- Armstrong has been one of the most outspoken detractors of the tax cut. He mostly directed his rage at the Portman-Warner amendment in a 10-tweet sequence, his second in two days. “At the eleventh hour, @MarkWarner has suggested an amendment that will determine which core technologies in crypto are acceptable and which are not,” Armstrong stated. “This is a complete disaster.”
- Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) submitted an earlier amendment, which Armstrong commended in a Wednesday tweet thread for reducing the definition of “intermediaries who have the capacity to report.”
- By imposing “massive reporting obligations” on miners, validators, smart contracts, open source developers, and others, he believes the law will jeopardise the growth of crypto in the United States and drive innovation to other countries.
Also read: Tesla CEO Elon Musk averses ‘Hasty’ Cryptocurrency Regulation
According to Armstrong, these rules would force Coinbase and other exchanges to “surveil” their customers’ transactions more closely than traditional financial services businesses, and he urged readers to contact their reps to have the surveillance language removed.
After months of negotiations, a bipartisan infrastructure measure is currently making its way through the Senate.
Over the next five years, the plan will invest $550 billion in new federal infrastructure investments in the United States.