Is Bloomberg Looking to Take Yang's Spot as the Crypto-Friendly Candidate?

Mike Bloomberg, a presidential hopeful and one of the richest men in the world, recognizes cryptocurrency as an “asset class”.

Former New York mayor and present-day Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg seems to be snuggling up to the crypto community.

In a proposal for financial reform released Feb. 18, the Democratic candidate not only wrote about cryptocurrency as an asset class, but also offered a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency in the U.S. That framework remains vague, running some 100 words in total, but it does represent a solid chunk of attention aimed at the blockchain world.

With Andrew Yang recently dropping out of the race, crypto enthusiasts lost their choice candidate. Yang was an outspoken proponent of new technologies during his campaign, openly hailing everything from artificial intelligence to blockchain databases as important developments that will help carry humanity forward.

With that technophile voice gone from the race, it seems the billionaire Bloomberg is trying to win some of his own crypto attention. Here’s the proposed crypto regulation framework from his Financial Reform Policy:

“Cryptocurrencies have become an asset class worth hundreds of billions of dollars, yet regulatory oversight remains fragmented and undeveloped. For all the promise of the blockchain, Bitcoin and initial coin offerings, there’s also plenty of hype, fraud and criminal activity. Mike will work with regulators to provide clearer rules of the game by:

• Clarifying responsibility for overseeing cryptocurrencies.
• Providing a framework for initial coin offerings, by defining when tokens are and are not 
• securities.
• Protecting consumers from cryptocurrency-related fraud.
• Clarifying how investments in cryptocurrencies will be taxed.
• Defining capital and other requirements for financial institutions holding cryptocurrencies.”