•Billionaire tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya recently declared “Crypto is dead in America”, blaming recent regulatory pressure for the state of crypto in the USA.
•The US SEC has been amping up its efforts to regulate the crypto sector via enforcement this year, leading to legal action against Coinbase and a Wells Notice from the SEC.
•Palihapitiya was critical of regulators for their snubbing of good players like Coinbase and cozying up to bad actors like FTX.
Chamath Palihapitiya Declares ‚Crypto is Dead in America‘
Billionaire tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya recently spoke on a podcast episode declaring “Crypto is dead in America”. According to Palihapitiya, this is due to the recent actions of regulators who have “firmly pointed their guns at crypto”. He believes that authorities are targeting cryptocurrency because it poses a threat to the establishment, as well as pushing boundaries more than other sectors of startups.
US SEC Amps Up Efforts To Regulate Crypto Sector
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ramped up its efforts to regulate the crypto sector via enforcement this year. Most notably, they issued a Wells Notice to Coinbase over unregistered securities offerings such as its staking program and some token listings. The agency also forced Kraken to shutter its staking service and took out action against BUSD stablecoin issuer Paxos alleging that BUSD is a security. They are even propping for a ban on investment advisors from trading in crypto assets.
Good Actors Paying Price For Regulatory Failures
Palihapitiya was strongly critical of regulators for their snubbing of good players like Coinbase and cozying up to bad actors like FTX. He argued that good actors were paying the price for what fraudulent firms did, damaging the reputation of cryptocurrency industry as a whole.
Coinbase Sues SEC For Clearer Crypto Rules
In response, Coinbase has sued the SEC asking for them to respond to its July 2022 petition for clearer crypto rules, with reports claiming that Coinbase might consider leaving the US if regulations don’t improve soon enough.
Solution: Bitcoin?
Despite all these challenges facing American investors looking into cryptocurrencies, Palihapitiya believes Bitcoin remains an attractive option due to its decentralized nature which makes it difficult or impossible for governments or agencies like the SEC regulate it completely or shut it down outrightly
