“Crypto is dead in America”.
That’s according to billionaire tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya, speaking on a recent episode of the All-In podcast.
Palihapitiya blamed the sorry state of crypto in the USA on the recent actions of regulators.
“Now you have (US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary) Gensler even blaming the banking crisis (last month) on crypto… so the United States authorities have firmly pointed their guns at crypto.”
Three US banks, all with close links to cryptocurrency, collapsed or were shuttered by US regulators last month, sparking concerns of a full-blown crisis in the US banking sector.
According to Palihapitiya, one reason authorities are going after crypto is because the rapidly growing industry poses a threat to the establishment.
Crypto companies “were probably the ones that were the most threatening to the establishment”, he noted, before adding that crypto companies were also “the ones that, in fairness to the regulators, did push the boundaries more than any other sector of the startup economy”.
The US SEC has amped up its efforts to regulate the crypto sector via enforcement this year.
Last month, the agency issued a Wells Notice to Coinbase, signaling it will soon pursue legal action against the exchange over “unregistered securities offerings”, like its staking program and some of its token listings.
Coinbase recently sued the SEC asking for it to respond to a July 2022 petition for clearer crypto rules, with the company also reported to be considering a US exit if the regulatory situation doesn’t improve.
The SEC also recently forced Kraken to shutter its staking service, took out action against BUSD stablecoin issuer Paxos (alleging that BUSD is a security) and is propping a ban on
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