What are your thoughts on regulating crypto in the U.S.? Do you support it or not?
If you're against it, what gives you confidence in crypto?
If you're in favor, what areas do you think should be regulated, and how should that be done?
Also, would changes in regulations either more relaxed or stricter affect your investing strategy?
Just a heads-up: I'm gathering opinions for a study on crypto, but don’t worry, your usernames will stay private.
Yes it should be regulated, more specifically the same as stocks/bonds, FOREX and the Metals markets are. Mainly to cut down on outright scams & pyramid schemes.
Pure and simple: If a company issues stock (coins/tokens) or has investors there needs to be records & reporting requirements to prove it is a viable company. If you deal in FOREX or Metals, you must provide KYC to prove who you are and where the financing comes from. The same needs to apply to ICO's, DeFi schemes & crypto trading. When ICO's 1st hit the scene the rampant pump & dump schemes that were outright scams proved what can and WILL happen when there is no regulatory oversight.
Crypto doesn't need regulation because everything is open source and verifiable. It's not like traditional finance where everything is proprietary and corrupt and based on trust which is why regulations are needed there.
Regulated crypto is not crypto. It's like saying XRP is crypto but it's not. When something is centralized then it's not crypto. Would you call CBDC crypto? If crypto is regulated it's not crypto. Crypto is supposed to be censorship resistant.
Freedom means you have to start being responsible and careful. Don't just buy random meme coins without doing research. If you don't do your own research you have to blame yourself. You can also choose to trust someone else to research for you. But there are no problems with doing your own research because there is white papers and open source code, you have everything you need. Or you can just stick to bitcoin and keep it simple by remembering "not your keys, not your bitcoin".
Another important point is again that crypto is supposed to be censorship resistant. Bitcoin shouldn't have to care about regulations. If bitcoin works the way satoshi planned it to work, then politicians can regulate crypto to hell as much as they want but bitcoin won't care about their regulations. But currently I don't see this vision being possible. Bitcoin appears to be under control of politicians and their regulations.
Wrong. ANY form of digital money IS crypto and yes that includes CBDC's, XRP, Eth, etc. Any coin/token/etc that uses cryptography as its basis is by definition - crypto.
A coin/token being censorship resistant is entirely up to whoever creates it and what the intended use is. Just because a centralized authority be it a government (CBDC's) or a company (coins/tokens) controls it does not change the fact that it is digital money ergo, crypto.
Regulations (so far) have nothing to do with censoring transactions. They are being put in place to ensure that the people & companies using and dealing with crypto follow legal guidelines, most of which as I already said are in place with all other financial markets.
In my estimation, there is already a regulation in place for crypto in the US. An example are exchanges where will need to submit KYC and have your identity verified before you are allowed to buy or sell crypto. Even these exchanges go ahead to pay taxes to keep doing business in the country which they operate in. Yes, this sounds like regulation to me already.
Regulation of crypto will make those investors who are scared to feel confident and actually invest in crypto. Just like the bitcoin ETFs did.
It should be regulated only for centralized cryptocurrency because we never know what will the owner do when they can revert the transactions and own the most.
For decentralized cryptocurrency, it shouldn't because we all know no one can control the coins.
That's mean Bitcoin would be forever illegal because Satoshi Nakamoto has gone for a long time and he will not want to submit his KYC to comply with the authority. Everyone only know Satoshi Nakamoto, but never know the face, location, etc.
It's unfair if the newest cryptocurrency need to provide KYC, but the old cryptocurrency didn't.
Did you hit your head in 2013 and just woke up now?
AFAIK the first attempts at regulation emerged in 2013 and now it has been many years since the crypto world has been regulated by laws in the USA.
On whether it should or not, I am in favor of having few regulations, just like few taxes, and at least in the initial spirit of the founders, such as cyberpunks, ancaps and others is this.
If I am not wrong, I believe cryptocurrency is already somewhat regulated in United States. They have some sort of legal framework where IRS is collecting taxes from the citizens and SEC is taking actions against crypto exchanges for anything and everything. If it was not regulated and recognised, these things wouldn't have happened!
I honestly believe crypto should not be regulated in any countries. However a clear legal framework needs to be available at the same time. Too much harsh regulations will only discourage people.
Before you talk about the law and regulation of crypto, you have to clarify to us what type of crypto you mean, you are making things difficult for yourself in your own research, As far as we know, crypto is a virtual or digital currency that is impossible to regulate, let alone fake and use multiple times.
Legally, cryptocurrencies cannot be regulated, because crypto is one of the currencies in which alternative payments are generally known to be made using algorithms or done using technology, Every transaction you have to deal with a wallet or exchange where you can only withdraw it in fiat.
Overall, crypto is guaranteed because cryptography is secure, in layman's terms, no one can regulate the internet or technology, Just like with crypto, you can regulate exchanges or users with rules or laws, but you can't regulate crypto in general.
Yes, I believe cryptocurrency should be regulated in the United States, but in a way that promotes innovation while protecting investors. Regulations should focus on:
- Preventing fraud and scams: This builds trust in the market.
- Ensuring tax compliance: Clear guidelines help users meet obligations without fear of penalties.
- Establishing security standards: This protects assets from hacks and misuse.
Tighter regulations wouldnt drastically change my approach to investing, but they would offer more clarity and confidence, especially for clients navigating tax and compliance issues.
Crypto thrives on transparency and trustregulations can enhance both when done thoughtfully.
Like you said, it is being regulated and I don't really the type of regulation OP is talking about. Already it is being regulated because all exchanges are not just operating with their rules. Kyc as requirement for investors to have access to exchanges is a form of regulation. Tighter regulation won't be bad, atleast it will give investors self assurance to invest, atleast it will make crypto exchanges to be more transparent and to also protect investors from falling in the hands of fraudsters.
There should be no regulation of crypto at all.
When used as a currency, regulated crypto has fewer benefits than fiat money, so regulated crypto won't gain wide adoption for buying/selling products/services.
On the other hand when traded on the stock markets, regulated crypto is pretty much the same as the regular stocks.
In a nutshell, regulating the cryptocurrencies will turn them into yet other market tickers that are only meaningful on the stock markets, but barely anyone uses them outside of these stock markets.
I'll add my five cents.
Cryptocurrency is not regulated in any way right now, as far as the ideas that Satoshi was talking about.
For example, no regulator can prohibit you from sending or receiving bitcoins, paying for goods and services with bitcoins, and so on.
If you don't use custodial services, you can't get regulated and restricted. Castorial services are regulated in each country
If a country has accepted crypto, I am sure all countries that accept it will regulate it. Regulation is very important because it protects investors and prevents money laundering. And I think crypto should be regulated in the United States for the safety and convenience of using crypto. Policy changes should consider consumer protection and market stability, while still encouraging innovation in the crypto sector. And hopefully the regulations related to crypto in the United States will benefit investors so that crypto will continue to grow better.
Cruptocurrencies are regulated in the sense that most governments that recognize their existence attach all kinds of strings to their usage. Just to name a few that come to mind
In USA crypto owners are required by law to keep track of all crypto transactions, even if these transactions don't invove fiat. Users are required to report these transactions to the tax authoritiesSome countries like France apply a weath tax to crypto assets. Users are required to pay this tax even if their crypto stays in their wallets without being used in any wayMany countries treat crypto payments as taxable events. Essentially crypto is treated as an asset and when the user buys a product/service with crypto, the government assumes that the product/service buyer has converted his crypto to fiat and then used the fiat to buy the product/service. That is why the buyer is required to pay capital gains tax on the converted crypto.EU governments prohibit financial institutions from accepting or making payments using privacy coins (the MiCA regulations)
Sure, not all of these limitations can be enforced effectively by the governments, but if one is caught breaking the law, he gets fines and/or jail time. And as time goes by, governments get better at catching offenders. So my guess is that currently things are not quite as Satoshi expected them to be.
I know that people see regulations in two ways;
1. As a witch hunt against cryptocurrency owners or adopters.
2. As a way to protect the cryptocurrency owners or adopters against malicious market players.
We will all agree that cryptocurrency should be regulated if we align with point number 2 more than one. But we will think otherwise if we believe number one more than two.
In a nutshell, anything without regulations is always abused, so crypto needs regulation.
If there was no regulation at all, people will freely create cryptocurrency exchanges and services and scam people off their money with impunity. I do not like excessive or aggressive regulation, but we cannot deny that some regulation is necessary, especially for custodial services and certain crypto scheme.
I will say that there are already so many laws in countries and they are so contradictory that in most cases it is impossible for a person to do business and comply with all the laws. So you have to follow the laws until you start to feel like an idiot.
Your government and tax inspectors will never know about your coins if you don't use custodial services.
Do you know the SEC security exchange commission is already regulating the sector? They filings against crypto centric businesses and projects such as lawsuits and complaints against XRP ripple Coinbase and many others over crypto products and services.
more than half of the world's countries have already legalized cryptocurrency. Now trump has already lunched his own memecoin, and soon he will take significant steps in the favor of crypto during his presidential period.