Cryptocurrency executives are speaking out against President Donald Trump’s tax reform plan and a White House proposal to ban new export licenses for digital currencies.
The leaders of cryptocurrency industry giants, which include Coinbase, Changelly, BitBay, BitGrail, Coinbase, TradeBlock, Blockchain, eToro, BitConnect, Cryptokitties, and Bits Blockchain, signed a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of two congressional committees this week, saying that “if enacted, these proposals would result in significant uncertainty and potentially detrimental effects for American digital currency companies.”
The industry’s representatives said the restrictions would undermine the industry’s ability to “both innovate and grow.”
“We greatly value the contributions of our innovative digital currency and token industry and supply chain partners,” the letter stated. “We support an open Internet and digital currency economy that provides these most vital and enabling elements for an innovative, decentralized infrastructure.”
They said that large and decentralized tokens like the ones now available would be “particularly difficult to regulate.”
The proposed restriction would limit each company’s ability to accept cryptocurrency on US-based transactions, the letter said.
Companies could also face difficulty growing their operations on an international scale, the letter stated.
“[They] would no longer be able to provide our investors and consumers their trusted US-based currency and cryptocurrency solutions,” the letter stated.
The letter said the industry leaders appreciated “the Administration’s actions on the tax reform proposals to encourage competition and increase tax equity” but that they’re open to disagreeing with any proposal to tax digital currency.
The letter was signed by Lora Ho, the CEO of Coinbase; Joshua Bateman, the executive vice president of Blockchain and CEO of BitGrail; chief business officer Aaron Schildkrout; and chief operating officer Emmett Keenan. It was also signed by Andrew Watson, the CEO of BitCap.
A White House spokesman, however, dismissed the companies’ concerns.
“This letter is simply an attempt to protect existing business models at the expense of innovation. New companies and existing companies competing in the space should be allowed to grow and thrive as new alternatives emerge,” the White House spokesman said in a statement.