One of the Directors of VanEck, the New York-based investment firm, has gone from defending Tether (USDT) to calling on the US to embrace Bitcoin and distributed ledger technology in the face of a burgeoning arms race.

Gabor Gurbacs is becoming quite vocal on Twitter after his defense of the controversial USDT cryptocurrency. Now, he is calling for the embracing of Bitcoin as a potentially innovative and revolutionary financial system for institutional investors.

Last week in a Tweet, just a day after Tether was hit with a $1.4 trillion class-action lawsuit, Gurbacs said that he was “tired of hoodwink academics, hype-media and uninformed lawyers discrediting the hard work and structural innovation that Tether and Bitfinex built!”

Following that controversial Tweet, Gurbacs has now called on America to embrace Bitcoin and distributed ledger technology. He states that not only is there “trillions of dollars in potential value [that] may be unlocked in capital markets and across various industries,” but there is also a full technological revolution happening through blockchain.

Who Will Embrace It?

While this tweet from Gurbacs is far less controversial than his previous attempts to defend Tether and its role in the cryptocurrency space, his parting question is a good one. “The question is who will fully embrace it and benefit?!,” the VanEck Director asks.

The US-based VanEck firm would be rooting for the US to indeed embrace Bitcoin and unlock its potential. Unfortunately, even though the US is a major market and player in the cryptocurrency space, it is quickly losing ground to the regions in the East.

The US has long looked to be the leader in many different global innovations and advancementsm however, it appears as if a new technological arms race is developing that America is less inclined to join.

Powers such as Japan and South Korea, as well as Singapore, Hong Kong, and even China to an extent, are seemingly far ahead of the USA with regards to taking blockchain, distributed ledger, and cryptocurrency seriously.

In fact, one prominent regulator who is massively in favor of Bitcoin even spoke of how far ahead the East is compared to the US. “Governments [in Asia] are also looking at this space [blockchain and cryptocurrency] from a very pragmatic perspective. They see cryptocurrency as an opportunity, not a threat. The focus is less on regulation and more on: ‘Can we implement this?’” Commissioner at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and ‘crypto mom,’ Hester Peirce said.

Resistance in the US

The approach from the US government and regulators towards Bitcoin and the blockchain space has been far more strained. From the president, Donald Trump, tweeting his disdain for Bitcoin, to the Senate, and Senators doing all they can to break apart Facebook’s Libra.

The US may not be entirely hostile to Bitcoin, but it is far from embracing it as Gurbacs is encouraging. If there is not a change in attitude soon, it may leave the Western superpower playing technological catch up in the next few years.

Will the US be able to keep up with the technological arms race that is building or will it lose a lot of power and position in the future global markets for its unwillingness to adapt to Bitcoin and Blockchain?