President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday that directs federal agencies to address Bitcoin and other digital assets.
The move comes as administration officials have raised concerns in recent weeks about Russia’s use of cryptocurrency to evade the impact of crushing sanctions in response to its invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions have sent the ruble to historic lows and have closed the country’s stock market.
The U.S. government has not had a unified approach to cryptocurrencies. The potential problems they pose include challenges to national security, threats to the dominance of the dollar and added difficulty in stopping criminal activity.
The Commerce, State and Treasury departments, as well as the Federal Reserve, have been working with or researching cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies for years.
REGULATING CRYPTO:Biden administration looks to regulate cryptocurrency with new executive order. What does it mean?
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The latest executive order, developed in conversations…