After Chinese ban, crypto mining under scrutiny by a new U. S. law

Senators Maggie Hassan and Joni Ernst introduced a new bill Monday intended to impose stronger oversight on crypto mining overseas.
The proposed bill requires the Treasury Dept. to submit to Congress a report on how nations are mining cryptocurrency, along with how much cryptocurrency has been mined since 2016 within both the U.S. and a number of countries including China.
Treasury could be required to examine the impact of crypto mining on supply chains for critical goods such as semiconductors, the global shortage of such goods has caused major disruptions in production for products including automobiles.
“In order to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, our government must get a better handle on the role that cryptocurrency is playing in the global economy and how it is being leveraged by other countries,” Senator Hassan said in a statement Monday.
Concerns around cryptocurrency regulation have increased on Capitol Hill in recent months, with debate over cryptocurrency-related amendments delaying the Senate’s USD 1 trillion infrastructure package in August.
Cryptocurrency markets have also come under scrutiny because of escalating ransomware attacks, with cyber criminals often using these markets to facilitate receiving payments from victims.
Ransomware attacks included the Colonial Pipeline and JBS USA, with both companies choosing to pay the ransom in bitcoin, though the majority of the funds paid by Colonial were recovered by the Department of Justice.
As a result, the federal government has taken action, with the Justice Department issuing its first sanctions against a virtual currency exchange last week due to the cryptocurrency exchange SUEX OTC allegedly facilitating ransomware attack payments.
China’s central bank went one step further last week when it ruled all cryptocurrency transactions as illegal due to security concerns about criminal activities.