Strict regulations undermine financial freedom and Inclusion. The businessman also thinks that regulating cryptocurrencies could make them grow in popularity.
Jesse Powell, CEO of the Kraken exchange house, in an interview with CNBC, said he was concerned about the strict regulations that could be applied to the cryptocurrency markets in the future in the United States of America.
The world’s governments could strengthen their regulatory mechanisms against bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as their adoption spreads and grows.
The executive of one of the world’s largest exchanges affirmed that these measures would not apply in the short term but the long term.
The United States of America seems to reject an utterly hostile position against cryptocurrencies for fear of damaging its financial system. The CEO also notes that “other countries, specifically China, are taking cryptocurrencies very seriously and taking a long-term perspective.
The US Federal Reserve still Needs More time to Reach a Position like China’s
In this sense, it is also essential to consider that China is carrying out an immense amount of tests with the digital yuan as an electronic instrument to replace its national currency. For its part, the US Federal Reserve still needs more time to reach a position like that of its Asian geopolitical rival, but it would present a digital dollar prototype later this year.
Regarding regulations like needing user identification for self-custodial cryptocurrency wallets, the executive noted that these kinds of measures could harm digital currencies and strangle their primary functions and features, allowing access to financial services to everyone.
On the way to the considerable expansion that Bitcoin is facing, rules will always work for businesses that focus on this technology. The regulations also include the fact that Bitcoin is solid enough to prevail.
Also, anti-money laundering measures suppose sky-high costs in terms of financial exclusion, business friction, bureaucracy, and regulatory compliance, violation of privacy, and so on. With a trillion or more, laundered by the world’s largest banks, these measures’ effectiveness becomes minimal even in the traditional centralized system.
Criminal behavior increases when structural incentives pave the way to these events, even when poverty increases and access to a decent life becomes difficult, but not when there is greater openness to global finance and a stronger currency.
These Kind of Measures Could Harm Digital Currencies
The executive noted that these kinds of measures could harm digital currencies and strangle their primary functions and features, allowing access to everyone’s financial services.
This same observation goes regarding the provisions that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) suggests implementing to the world’s governments. Pursuing self-custody and the free exchange of value are set against individual autonomy and directly attack the essence of Bitcoin.
However, the executive also thinks that imposing regulations on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies could have the opposite effect. Kraken and Coinbase have opposed legislation before. They consider that it is contrary to the spirit of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
Kraken, which has grown in both the bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) staking markets, evaluates entering the US stock markets next year; CNBC and Coinbase already did it.
By: Jenson Nuñez
