"Circle Internet Financial"? "Jeremy Allaire", their CEO, is speaking. They were established three weeks ago. They have $9 million in capital from a VC.
You guys missed the whole point...
This Trojan Horse Dude spelled it out clearly...
Raise Barriers to Entry from zero to $1-2 million Reg Fees...
Then HIGH ongoing compliance costs... because money is "special".
Every bank and well-financed BTC business wants High Barriers to Entry...
And that is what we will get codified in law by the Govt.
Then they'll methodically shut down all businesses "not in compliance"...
Which is about 99% of the businesses here.
Not the businesses that use Bitcoins for transactions. Just the exchanges, brokers, and dealers. The ones that handle other people's money. Over half the Bitcoin exchanges have failed, taking customer funds with them.
This hearing probably is a lose for the shadier exchanges. With all the major US regulators indicating that they have no fundamental problem with Bitcoin, attention will be focused on the bad actors. Like Mt. Gox not paying out customer funds.