At the US Senate Banking Committee hearings on cryptocurrency regulation last week, there was plenty of the skepticism and consternation you might expect, but there was also something new: a fear of being left behind. One of the expert witnesses invited to the hearing was Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, who last month moved much of his firm’s exchange operations out of the US and into Bermuda. The decision, Allaire said, was not taken as part of a game of regulatory arbitrage searching for the most favorable regulations. It was a matter of clarity. The US is locked in a situation of government departments interpreting crypto assets differently, which makes running a business dealing in crypto assets both difficult and risky. Circle is not the only major crypto player to determine that the US isn’t welcome ground. The last few months have been characterized by de-listings and a broader de-Americanization, with US consumers having access to fundamentally fewer crypto-based products than citizens of other nations. Case in point: Some 70 percent of Circle’s customers on its Poloniex exchange come from outside the US anyway, the firm said at the time. Regulation isn’t just a theoretical problem for exchange bosses to solve. It is impacting America’s place in the crypto assets world. Whereas the US has historically led in many emerging technology fields, Messari’s Ryan Selkis pointed out last week that of the 12 crypto “unicorns”, only five are based in the US, while seven lie beyond American shores. There is simply no denying the shift in power when it comes to the global crypto markets. We’re thrilled to have Jeremy Allaire join us at Invest: Asia to speak about this worldwide change and more. Register now.
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