After the collapse of FTX, what is the path forward for crypto regulation? I have no idea! The basic situation in the US is that regulators — mainly, the US Securities and Exchange Commission — are pretty hostile to crypto, and if a crypto exchange comes to the regulators and says “how can I set up a full-service, innovative, but regulatorily compliant crypto exchange for US customers” the regulators will say “I’m so glad you came in, welcome,” and then throw them in a dungeon. After FTX, you could have two views of that approach:
1) If US regulators had been more accommodating, more crypto trading would have moved to US-regulated exchanges that were transparent, audited, and carefully supervised by US regulators, and the result would have been that FTX would not have lost billions of dollars of customer money. Or:
2) If US regulators had been more accommodating, crypto exchanges like FTX would have had a lot more access to US customers, and would have lost a lot more of their money.
I think both of those views probably have some merits, but the overall tone of the discussion these days favors the second….
Source: Not Now, Coinbase – Bloomberg
