From newspaper advertisements to conference rooms, from the street to the halls of regulatory agencies, those who are serious about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are going on the offense in terms of seeking out regulatory approvals and clarity.
Eduardo Prospero reports today at NewsBTC about some of this activity, and the idea that generating a set of ‘rights’ for crypto users may move the ball forward in terms of regulatory certainty.
The upshot of Prospero’s column is that proactive outreach to regulators has built more of a solid place for crypto in our financial world.
A major example cited in Prospero’s piece is the viewpoint of finance head Changpeng Zhao, who is seen as a galvanizing figure in the crypto community partly due to the success of the Binance platform as a whole. Binance itself has faced its own raft of regulatory issues, with many Binance operations limited in the U.S., and vague SEC letters about Binance status, which we have reported on in detail in the past.
In the story, Zhao talks about how Binance wants to take advantage of better regulatory frameworks, and how meeting with agencies has helped.
“When people see me in person, they say, ‘look, CZ is very reasonable, very calm, not a crazy guy,’” Zhao said, as quoted.
In terms of creating a more stable and secure place to make cryptocurrency trades, Zhao says the system only lost 3% of users in changes to remain compliant. He does cite a small number of people who don’t like the industry’s improvements on KYC or know your customer rules that regulators are demanding from exchanges and other parties.
“There is a small group of people who do not like to do know-your-customer rules, get verified, etc.,” Zhao reportedly said. “It’s a free market. There are other platforms they could use.”
Today, front-running cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum are both down from local and all-time highs. Bitcoin crested at around $65,000, and is now down toward $60,000. Ethereum spiked to around $4400, and is now down around $4000.
Both of them, though, stand above psychological support levels that would signal greater cratering.
Does that suggest that regulatory meetings are making a difference?
Your answer to the above question will help guide your crypto strategy and your investment portfolio moves.