INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Opinion by: Daniel Taylor, head of policy at ZumoPeer inside the average crypto regulatory consultation meeting, and you will quickly notice
a distinctive pattern: throngs of TradFi lawyers and ex-financial services personnel responding to documents written by financial services
2025, Coinbase suffered a data breach exposing personal customer data gathered by regulatory obligation during the Know Your Customer (KYC)
It has set aside between $180 million and $400 million to reimburse customers defrauded during subsequent social engineering attacks.The
crypto world responded to state what will be evident to many in the crypto sector: that the technology solutions exist to make such mass
to prove claims without exposing sensitive data
landscape.Whether we like it or not, exchanges remain core on- and off-ramps to the rest of the (non-custodial) crypto ecosystem
KYC is not the only data-heavy requirement to which crypto exchanges are exposed.Other UK requirements, both current (Travel Rule) and
neatly labeled and packaged under the historically inept, if not downright exploitative, auspices of corporate and public authority data
rise: Six attacks that targeted investorsFailing to build in privacy-enhancing technologies within crypto intermediaries and within
applications at large is a crypto (not to mention societal) disaster in the making
picture requires representing that opinion in the regulatory conversations that matter and providing technology solutions that bridge the
Crypto consumers deserve digital solutions that provide more individual security and more individual privacy as default.How crypto
technologists leadThe good news is the crypto industry has a track record in introducing techno-regulatory innovations
Proof-of-reserve systems have become a commonplace way to make claims about platforms and backing assets
Privacy pool concepts explore maintaining onchain privacy while adhering to compliance expectations
And solutions are emerging to bring critical legal functions entirely onchain
We need more technology advocates and techno-lawyers who can marry technological innovation with the needs of the regulatory environment.And
must ensure that the policy conversation is not held solely in a room of incumbents, TradFi lawyers and suits but rather takes wider
perspectives into account.Merging the old world and the newCrypto regulatory frameworks are in danger of being legislated by those with the
old world as their default scope of reference and with no imagination to see beyond it
We must act fast to represent more tech-based and crypto-native views in regulatory engagement
Otherwise, we risk finding ourselves saddled with rules that fail to innovate and tailor to the unique properties and potential of the
crypto asset sector.That means no more burying heads in the sand on regulatory realities and standing up to shape the regulatory future
That means more technologists must join the regulatory conversation to champion privacy-enhancing technologies and crypto-native
solutions.Opinion by: Daniel Taylor, head of policy at Zumo.This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and
should not be taken as legal or investment advice
