Elon Musk Sides With Crypto Industry In Infrastructure Bill Debate

Tech tycoon and Tesla TSLA CEO Elon Musk voiced his concern over the so-called infrastructure bill impacting the cryptocurrency space, which could purportedly kill swathes of the local crypto industry.

What Happened: In a late Friday Twitter thread, Coinbase COIN CEO Brian Armstrong criticized the last-minute amendment to the infrastructure bill proposed by Senators Rob Portman, R-Ohio – who drafted the original tax provision – along with Mark Warner, D-Va. and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. The amendment — which won the approval of President Joe Biden — for allegedly deciding "which foundational technologies are OK and which are not in crypto."

Armstrong described the amendment as "disastrous" and explained that for unknown reasons the wording would force "proof of stake validators to comply with the impossible, but not proof of work miners." He said that "this is the government trying to pick winners and losers" and likened it to Senators deciding "that iOS is OK but Android isn’t."

Musk answered the thread saying that he agrees and highlighting that "this is not the time to pick technology winners or losers in cryptocurrency technology." He believes that there is no need for such measures since "there is no crisis that compels hasty legislation."

Price Action: According to CoinMarketCap data, Bitcoin continues its bullish push seemingly unperturbed by the news. The coin rallied by over 9.13% from its 24-hour low of $40,719 to a high of $44,440, before settling at $43,357 as of press time.