Curmudgeon
“Curmudgeon” – a cartoon that illustrates the arbitrary approach to crypto regulation in the United States.
In the absence of new laws, there are three regulatory bodies (SEC, CFTC and the Treasury Dept) who are competing among each other for agency leadership.
While competition is normally a healthy thing, when it comes to businesses trying to invest for the future when the regulatory rules of the road are not clear, the consequences are generally negative.
For example, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the SEC won’t meet with the company to discuss a future regulatory path and then when Coinbase wanted to launch a new product, the SEC threatened to sue Coinbase without providing any explanation.
Meanwhile the CFTC recently pierced the veil on Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) making all voting governance token holders as potentially culpable members of a DAO, without providing any direction on how DAOs could operate to avoid this.
As a result, we see a steady move by the crypto industry to leave the US – this week American cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex announced that it would wind down its U.S. operations, as it was not “economically viable” to continue to run the exchange in the “current U.S. regulatory and economic environment.”
Perhaps American regulators want no crypto industry in the US, if so, it would be a lot easier to come out and say it rather than banging on the roof.
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