British MP says Ethereum ‘flippening’ is taking place, calls for a ‘safe space’ for crypto
Conservatives expressed urgency to remove the restrictions that are holding back the UK economy
In the Queen’s Speech debate, Member of the UK Parliament Tom Tugendhat argued that the Treasury needs to pick up the pace and open up to crypto.
Tugendhat is a Conservative MP for Tonbridge, Edenbridge and Malling and a chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee. He has been an MP continuously since 7 May 2015.
UK updating for the “new economy”
On Tuesday, Tugendhat debated that values and concepts of individual ownership and corporate and private responsibility need an update.
“The Queen’s Speech does not cover the changing nature of currency, the changing nature of the economy and the innovations that we are seeing online through various forms of cryptocurrencies,” he said.
As he argued that there is no time in the debate for him to cover the details of “the flippening” or “why he is going to be bullish on the ETH and not BTC,” Tugendhat used his speech to express the need for the Treasury to enable innovation and make “the changes needed in order to remove the restrictions that are holding back the economy.”
In order to keep up with future trade and risk sharing trends, the UK has to update their legal system and rethink currencies and contracts for “the new economy,” he noted in a tweet.
“We’re seeing the flippening from #Bitcoin to #Ether and we need H.M. Treasury to help create space for UK innovation and our legal system to learn what’s needed in a new economy,” he said.
We need to think about the contracts and currencies that will shape future trade and risk sharing. We’re seeing the flippening from #Bitcoin to #Ether and we need @hmtreasury to help create space for UK innovation and our legal system to learn what’s needed in a new economy. pic.twitter.com/vUN0rxbW1W
— Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) May 20, 2021
Concerns about China
In April 2020, Tugendhat participated in the launching of the China Research Group (CRG), a brain trust set up by a group of Conservative MPs in the UK formed to “promote debate and fresh thinking about how Britain should respond to the rise of China“.
Tugendhat was consequently sanctioned by the Chinese government, together with the CRG, focused on investigating issues related to China’s industrial and diplomatic policies.
“If we do not get this right, these standards will be set by authoritarian Governments with no interest in innovation, or in wild places where there is no regulation and no accountability,“ debated Tugendhat on Tuesday.
China’s trade policy, in particular the development, ownership and regulation of platform technologies are drawing more and more attention overall, as their authorities keep intensifying crypto warnings.