Sure, but once everyone is looking for an exit, what does that do to the price?
The government can easily say that with rising BTC values, they are making it illegal to trade in the US because they are trying to protect the consumer. It is so incredibly easy in my opinion. So if you have a coin sitting there at 50k or 100k, how are you controlling your risk of it losing 99% of its value very quickly? It could very well be an overnight decision like this, as opposed to weeks of going back and forth with 10% down days, but at least giving those paying attention time to get out.
Crypto's success will more than likely lead to its demise. It serves no purpose for the government, and in fact, makes it's work that much more difficult. The US does not need competition for the dollar. Perhaps at this very moment, watching it unfold is an excellent learning tool, but at some point, I do believe that all governments will need to take back the control over their currency.
I mean look at how China imposed laws limiting how much money you can remove from the country. Sure, there are ways around it, as there will be with BTC, but the mere threat of either the FED or some other government entity looking into the role that crypto plays in the financial stability of the US dollar will cause a huge drop in its price.
World Population ~ 7.8billion
US population ~ 331million
Fair to say, throughout it’s entire existence, it has not only survived in an adversarial environment but thrived.
Bitcoin doesn’t care about nation states.