The US Senate Banking Committee chair suggests banning cryptocurrencies and says they are a threat to national security

• The chair of the Senate Banking Committee broached potentially banning cryptocurrencies in the US.
• Senator Sherrod Brown told 'Meet the Press' on Sunday that cryptos remain "dangerous."

The chair of the US Senate Banking Committee suggested banning cryptocurrencies on Sunday, highlighting the collapse of FTX and the threat of tokens.

In an interview with "Meet the Press," Senator Sherrod Brown said he wants both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission "to do what they need to do at the same time, maybe banning it," before cautioning that such a measure would bring a separate set of difficulties.

He added that a ban would be difficult because crypto would then "go offshore, and who knows how that would work."

Brown warned that cryptos are dangerous and a national security threat, saying they worsen problems like North Korean hacks, drug trafficking, human trafficking and terrorism financing.

He pointed to the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX as a basis for supporting a ban on cryptos, and said the fall of the world's second-largest crypto exchange "is only one huge part of this problem."

Brown is a longtime crypto skeptic and lauded the Justice Department for filing criminal charges against Bankman-Fried on December 13.

FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on November 11, with Bankman-Fried also stepping down as chief executive. SBF was arrested by authorities in the Bahamas on December 12 and is expected to be extradited to the US.