Bitcoin Price In Flux As Senate Committee Goes LIVE

Running right now is a very important hearing before a Senate Committee about the current state of Virtual Currencies. This hearing is taking place on February 6th, 2018, and it's begun at 9:54am EST. Today we've got commentary on several parts of this committee hearing, and we'll have video of the whole hearing as soon as possible. You can also watch live along with us as we continue to bring you commentary the whole way through.

The hearing we're experiencing today was announced yesterday to the public. This event hosted The Honorable Jay Clayton, Chairman, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; and The Honorable J. Christopher Giancarlo, Chairman, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The same committee held a similar hearing back in November of 2013, with a session called "The Present and Future Impact of Virtual Currency."

To begin watching the current session live with us, head over to CSPAN where they've got both the live feed and a "Watch from beginning" option. The impact of this chat might be relegated to the day, or it might span well into the future. Judge that by the title: "Virtual Currencies: The Oversight Role of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission."

UPDATE: Senate committee members seem wholly confused about what cryptocurrencies are in general.

It would appear that these two heads of their respective departments are in the process of deciding how cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are to be judged and regulated by the United States government. Thus far, the closest they've come to a single solid answer has to do with how the cryptocurrency market ties to our United States Dollar – and other FIAT currencies.

"The funny thing about these cryptocurrencies is that they only work for their purported purpose if they're integrated with the financial system," said Clayton."The definition of a security is brought," said Giancarlo. "And it includes, I'm not gonna use the technical terms, there's supreme court cases and things like this, but it includes, when, if you are offering me a security, or offering me something. A coin. And I give you money, and the purpose of me giving you that money is to profit from your efforts going forward... and by the way, this coin can be traded. So you may be able to get value for it tomorrow, in fact, you probably will get value for it tomorrow. You buy now, so you can get more value for it in a few days, that's a security."

"It's important to remember that if there was no bitcoin, there would be no blockchain or distributed ledger technology" said Giancarlo.

UPDATE: Watch the whole hearing here:

The decisions are being made, and regulation is still very much up in the air. Watch and see how this all rolls out. Meanwhile we're watching the price of Bitcoin very, very closely too. It might be the bottom today, or it might be the time to rally back up. We shall see.

As it is with all articles about Bitcoin and/or cryptocurrencies, this is not meant to be investment or financial advice. SlashGear takes no responsibility for the actions of any user before, during, or after the reading of this article.