CMV: The US Government should impose a gigantic tax on all cryptocurrency gains to kill it.

Cryptocurrency, from my perspective, is a cancer. The negatives to society are overwhelming compared to the positives.

- Massive waste of energy.

- Heavily used for scamming purposes i.e. rug pulls, and convincing the poor to buy worthless crap pumped by celebrities hoping to get rich quick.

- Doesn't actually fulfill its stated goals (it is supposed to be a store of value and a hedge against inflation, yet bitcoin dropped over 73% during the 2022 mini-recession, aka an inflation-induced recession). Instead, it heavily increases the impact of recessions.

- Main "value added" is the facilitation of illegal activities, i.e. buying drugs, skirting international laws (i.e., sending money to Russia when our government specifically tried to block such transactions for a reason).

- Even if it is ultimately successful in replacing the US dollar, the replacement of the US dollar is not in the best interests of the US. We got off the gold standard for a reason, we will see a dramatic loss in the ability to quickly address disasters (can't print crypto) or stave off recessions.

Considering all these factors, it appears that crypto's growth is diametrically opposed with the best interests of the United States and its citizens. What is the best way to curb it?

A ban would be very challenging. To truly enforce it, you'd need to shut down the internet. Or people would use VPN's. Even China couldn't really pull it off.

So what would work is- a massive tax on cryptocurrency gains. Since cryptocurrency is almost exclusively a speculative tool with no inherent value, a large tax on crypto gains would effectively destroy this plague before it gets worse.