INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Last week's move by the People's Bank of China to ban crypto transactions and mining dented the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other
opportunity for America: It can lead the way for a more permissive approach to crypto.This looks like the kind of warped logic that paints
What's bad for crypto sometimes really is just bad.The jury may be out on whether this ban will be more successful than previous ones, but
painting it as a way for the United States to steal a march on China is a stretch
The Biden administration has made clear it sees cryptocurrencies as fuel for ransomware, a vehicle for fraud and a potential threat to
financial stability and post-Covid reconstruction
More regulation of this sector is undoubtedly on the way, and those on the frontlines know it.The question of whether the United States
could follow suit with a ban of its own, as Ray Dalio has imagined, is a trickier one
The laser-eyed crowd may have a point in that it's getting rather late in the day for the United States to try the Chinese approach, not
least with Wall Street eyeing a bigger share of the crypto pie
But that doesn't mean regulation is out of sight
In fact, it's quite the opposite.The crypto market has metastasized into a $2 trillion monster, driven by a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
that continues to draw in smart wealthy people, especially in North America
hedge-fund billionaires are starting to dip their toes
The time for regulation is ticking as the ranks of wealthy backers grows.Ironically, one of the closest things to a United States crypto
Even with evidence piling up that crypto is a nightmare when it comes to environmental, social and governance concerns, plenty of investors
are happy to keep buying.Those assuming that the rivalry between the United States and China will be favorable for a cryptocurrency like
Bitcoin are kidding themselves
The ante is being upped for regulators in a post-Covid world, where lives are increasingly lived online and where technology makes weak
governance an even bigger threat
crypto is only hard to imagine because of the political will and capital needed to achieve it; it's not a technological impossibility
There would need to be international cooperation like that seen in the crackdown on tax havens, combined with national measures like those
20th-century rules preventing the private ownership of gold
But China and Covid may end up making this mix more likely, not less.Crypto-evangelists should bear this in mind
FOMO may have the upper hand now, but FUD won't be far behind.
