El-Erian stresses positive approach to crypto regulation

What

Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz Mohamed A. El-Erian urged the crypto industry to start engaging with regulators sooner rather than later to avoid the regulatory headwinds facing internet giants like Amazon and Meta.

Why

For crypto to flourish, it needs to take seriously that there are concerns about illicit payments according to El-Erian

What next

Should the West move too slowly to fix these issues and establish a solid cryptocurrency ecosystem, El-Erian believes China will instead take the lead

Allianz Chief Economic Advisor and former PIMCO CEO, Mohamed A. El-Erian warned of the dangers of avoiding regulators. The famed economist urged the crypto industry to engage with regulators ‘sooner rather than later’ if they wished to avoid the pitfalls made by Big Tech companies such as Amazon and Meta.

“When I speak to people in the crypto industry, I say you have a responsibility not to repeat the mistakes of Big Tech,” El-Erian told Bloomberg. “The big mistake of Big Tech was they didn’t realise they were becoming systemically important, so they didn’t engage in preemptive regulatory discussions.”

Ripple recently published a proposal for a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies called “A Real Approach to Cryptocurrency Regulation.” CEO Brad Garlinghouse explained that his company’s “proposed policy framework is a three-pronged approach of what can be done now,” noting that it is the result of Ripple’s “direct interactions with regulators and bipartisan policymakers.”

Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has also proposed a crypto framework, with four key recommendations. CEO Brian Armstrong has been meeting with regulators to convince them that the U.S. should have just one single federal regulator overseeing the crypto space. 

Regulators have been slow to establish their own digital currencies, but despite the recent news that China has largely banned crypto-related activities, El-Erian believes the world’s second largest economy may look to get ahead of the U.S. and other countries in the West on digital currency and blockchain technology.

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