Regulatory Roadblocks Cause U.S. Crypto Companies To Shift Its Base Overseas
The U.S. cryptocurrency and blockchain industry is facing a tough time currently due to the prevailing regulatory uncertainty over the last few months. The U.S. regulatory bodies have been criticized for their over-involvement and scrutiny creating roadblocks into further innovation and development in the crypto space.
Last week, TechCrunch co-founder Michael Arrington made some bold statements saying that he is considering to shift his venture capital firm XRP Capital out of the U.S. and later relocate in Asia. Arrington made this statement after the SEC issued two subpoenas to his company.
On his Twitter account, Arrington wrote: “We received a second subpeona from the SEC, again collecting information from us as investors in a U.S. company. The legal costs of dealing with these are not insignificant. We will not invest in any further U.S. deals until the SEC clarifies token rules. Pivot to Asia.”
He further took a dig on the SEC saying that due to continuous crackdown on local companies, “the U.S. has already been left behind.” In the last few months, the SEC has been continuously putting Bitcoin ETF requests one after the other.
In fact, SEC commissioner Hester Peirce has herself expressed dissent on the decisions made by the agency. She has said that the agency should re-consider its premise of rejecting cryptocurrency products. Peirce added that the SEC should limit its evaluation to considering them as digital assets and not on the future limitations of its technology.
Moreover, the U.S. cryptocurrency industry lacks a collective effort to put pressure on the government to implement solid regulatory measures to streamline the functioning of the crypto market.
Jake Chervinsky, as government enforcement defense & securities litigation attorney at Kobre & Kim LLP said, “There’s no money behind it yet. Like it or not, if you want to push legislation through Congress, you need lobbying infrastructure. The friend I mentioned is a fairly savage political operative. His question is basically ‘who’s gonna to pay me to get this done?’”
On the other hand, Asian countries like Singapore, South Korea, Japan have already implemented crypto-friendly regulations for companies to come and do business Moreover, at the same time, they have ensured that the legislation protects the investors’ interest by creating a conducive environment.