So these days US bans bitcoin while China and Russia unban bitcoin. Its a BRICS world in the making. Crazy how there is an Inverse Cramer ETF yet the bitcoin ETF was always tantalizingly too risky (or whatever flaky garbage was peddled to the public).
This move by the SEC is meant to precipitate legislation from an absolutely inept congress, not that I care to delve into US politics... And soon the Fed will be up for their next chicken-Wednesday. Rates will pause and maybe inflation will be "behind us". Most cannot digest the fact that a decrease in the rate of inflation is still inflation, and that is why I love the corn.
The US is currently trying to safeguard its financial system, but it has not banned Bitcoin. However, no government has the power to ban Bitcoin completely. They can only try and slow its growth, which has already been huge over the past decade.
China has legally banned Bitcoin within its mainland. Bitcoin cannot be mined or traded there. It is using Hong Kong as a proxy to attract American Bitcoin entrepreneurs, something it has been doing for over a decade.
Russia, facing economic sanctions and the possibility of being blacklisted by the FATF, has no other option but to allow its Banks to deal in Bitcoin. Without Bitcoin, Russia's economy would struggle. We can expect them to declare Bitcoin as a legal tender in the coming years.
The BRICS is an organization that is largely based upon two countries: China and India. While China wants to adopt a Dedollarisation policy similar to Russia, India does not want to. China wants to replace the dollar with the Yuan, but India is currently in a border dispute with China and accepting the Chinese currency as a replacement doesn't favour India's growth.
India has not banned Bitcoin because they have already placed a tax bracket on it before creating regulations. At the moment, their banking network is not struggling, unlike the US, Russia, or China. If and when it does, we may see India act in a similar manner to those countries.
Overall, it's important to understand that governments cannot completely ban Bitcoin, but they can try to slow its growth.