Despite the strong regulatory posture taken toward the rapidly expanding decentralized finance (DeFi) industry, officials of popular crypto platforms have not given up hope and are rather hopeful about the future of the industry.
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the Chairman of Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, is one of these individuals. The CEO shared his opinions when addressing CNBC at the time of the Paris Blockchain Weekly Conference, according to a report published on the 15th of April by the news network.
Regulations in the U.K prohibited Zhao’s company from engaging in any regulated activity in the country beginning in 2021. Binance was forced to curtail its operations when the Singaporean central bank said that the platform’s services may be in breach of local laws, prompting the site to restrict its operations.
However, as he stated in an interview with CNBC:
“There is no doubt that the tide is turning.”
Those statements ring true with the mood he conveyed in his keynote speech at the meeting on the 13th April, in which he stated that regulatory debates surrounding cryptocurrency have shifted from a “negative” to a “positive” tone.
Several other prominent players in the sector, notably Nicolas Cary, the co-founder of cryptocurrency wallet provider Blockchain.com, agrees with Zhao’s point of view. Cary stated the following in an interview with CNBC:
“The regulatory environment throughout the world is catching up with the rest of the world.”
Checking The Legislative Framework
Indeed, even though the Chinese administration has made it clear that they do not want anything to do with cryptocurrency, the governments of the United Kingdom and the U.S are thinking of bringing the nascent market under legislative control as part of their efforts to establish themselves as rulers in crypto development and investment.
Following this position, the government of the United Kingdom has announced its intention to accept stablecoins as a legitimate form of payment. A non-fungible token (NFT) will be produced by the Royal Mint this summer, according to the country’s Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, who has requested the creation of the token.
France, which is hosting the Paris Blockchain Weekly Conference, is another country that has been mentioned in a favourable light in recent months. According to Zhao, it is “extremely progressive and very receptive towards cryptocurrencies,” and it is also “much more advanced in its understanding” than the United States.
The co-founder of the Tezos (XTZ) company, Arthur Breitman, has commented on the authorities’ apprehension about the ‘bad side’ of the sector, which includes cash laundering and other criminal operations, by saying that:
“It appears to me that people are beginning to take it very seriously, [but] I don’t believe they are receiving any warm and fuzzy feelings about it. They will have a conservative slant.”
Some Encounters Vary
Having said that, several cryptocurrency leaders have recently had a negative experience with financial authorities, notably Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, whose company is currently embroiled in a legal case with the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) of the United States.
He stated:
“When I offer guidance to entrepreneurs who are considering starting a cryptocurrency enterprise, I tell them to avoid incorporating in the U. S. Because of the lack of transparency and certainty, you run the possibility of being subjected to the same type of action that the SEC filed against us.”
Notably, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accuses the company of fraudulently selling more than $1 billion of the XRP currency between 2013 and 2020.