DIAMOND VISUALS
- The US Treasury does everything in its power to kill crypto, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.
- Hoskinson was speaking in South Africa for a pan-African tour that started last week.
- "A $2 trillion industry just pops up in our backyard, and my government's trying to kill it," he said.
- Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
The US Treasury Department is doing all it can to shut down crypto assets, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said late last week during a tour of Africa.
He kicked off an event in Cape Town, South Africa, by saying he is not discouraged by the Treasury's efforts to limit the growing crypto community.
Regulators have been scrutinizing the crypto industry more closely to safeguard against money laundering, exploitation of investors, ransomware attacks, fraud and disappearing coins.
"In DC, the Treasury Department does everything in its power to try to kill our industry," Hoskinson said in a chat with the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative, part of a tour that started last week.
"A $2 trillion industry just pops up in our backyard, and my government's trying to kill it."
Market players are looking for regulatory clarity in the growing crypto space. Authorities around the world have stepped up their scrutiny of bitcoin and the like as they have gained in adoption and value.
Cardano's ada, for example - the fourth biggest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of over $70 billion - has surged by more than 2,000% since the start of 2021, according to Binance data.
Cryptocurrencies have also long been attractive for criminals, given that they're decentralized and ownership is difficult to track.
The Treasury, which is responsible for maintaining systems critical to US financial infrastructure, blacklisted its first crypto exchange in late September.
The agency said it would sanction Russian-owned Suex for its role in laundering financial transactions for ransomware actors, saying 40% of the exchange's transactions were tied to illicit activity.
Most recently, the Treasury has joined a chorus of voices calling for crypto companies to be at the forefront of helping stop ransomware payments that are not easily traced on the blockchain.
But Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell clarified that he had no intention of banning crypto in late September.