A trio of speakers attending Industry Day on May 18 during the Bitcoin 2023 event in Miami held a discussion on government regulation and how the cryptocurrency industry should fight the “anti-crypto army.”
Moderated by David Zell, co-founder of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, the panel included the participation of Perianne Boring, founder and CEO of the Chamber of Digital Commerce; Mina Khattak, Senior Director of Cryptocurrency and Web3 at Worldpay; and Dana Syracuse, a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm.
The debate began with Boring of the Chamber Of Digital Commerce describing the current regulatory situation as “dire”, after partly blaming recent scandals surrounding cryptocurrency regulation. “With a lot of negative headlines,” Boring explained, “there have been a lot of setbacks. And that has given regulators a lot of ammunition to crack down.”
Boring also added that some politicians appear to be totally against the proliferation of cryptocurrency and decentralized fintech because they “do not necessarily fit the vision or goals of some politicians who believe these things should be controlled.” However, Boring was convinced that these challenges will be surmountable:
“I am very confident that we can beat them because, at the end of the day, Bitcoin really represents American values.” What does bitcoin really do? It allows people to own and control their assets, their digital assets, for the first time in history.”
Syracuse – co-chairman of the Fintech Industry Group and co-leader of blockchain, digital assets and custody at law firm Perkins Coie – followed Boring’s remarks by agreeing, but also saying it was “really important for the industry to keep an eye on […] the amount of collaboration that many regulators have done to date.”
Worldpay’s Khattak noted that much remains to be done when it comes to cryptocurrency regulation in the United States, describing the current business climate for digital assets as challenging for companies that might worry about an ever-changing regulatory landscape. change.
Citing uneven oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Khattak said: “If you’re going to trade with a partner and they can get the notice from Wells, for example, that creates a lot of reputational risk for a Web2 company.”
Although all three panelists seemed to agree that regulatory issues were a major concern for the cryptocurrency space, none of them seemed to agree with the premise of the debate.
Asked by moderator Zell how the sector could “fight back” in Washington, Syracuse immediately responded: “I don’t think it’s a fight. I don’t think it has to be antagonistic.” He went on to say that “even putting it in those rhetorical terms is ultimately dangerous.” Khattak, in concluding remarks from him, also added that he believed the two most important ways to move forward with regulators are education and collaboration.
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