BITCOIN and the cryptocurrency mania has been met with scepticism by institutional investors and big banks but an investor has revealed the one thing which will win over cryptocurrency critics.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a hot commodity at the moment, but they are missing one thing that will legitimise them for institutional investors who have been sceptical about jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon, John Sarson of Blockchain Momentum has said.
Speaking to CNBC, the investor said that regulation of the digital currency space would be “embraced” by mainstream investors.
His comments come as South Korea has started to self-regulate the cryptocurrency market with the launch of the Korean Blockchain Association (KBA) amid fears of a government crackdown on the digital tokens.
He said: “We embrace that because my firm, we deal with sophisticated investors, people have to have a $2 million-plus net worth to do business with us.
“Those investors are used to Wall Street protocols to protect them.
“Protocols to protect investors has been what the cryptocurrency markets have been missing and it’s what the legislation in South Korea seeks to implement.
“There’s a couple of acronyms we’re all going to get really used to talking about.
“That is ‘AML’ for anti-money laundering and ‘KYC’ for know your client.
“It’s a good thing anytime an investment exchange knows their client and makes sure their clients are doing things that are above board, legally.
“It lets them scale and it brings legitimacy to the space.”
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, Ripple and ethereum, are likely to be targets of an ‘inevitable’ regulatory crackdown, according to Dr Garrick Hileman.
Dr Hileman who has advised the CIA and US army on cryptocurrencies, warned would-be cryptocurrency investors a regulatory crackdown is coming.
When Dr Hileman, from the Cambridge University Centre for Alternative Finance, was asked if regulation as inevitable he replied: “I think it is.”
He said: “Many regulators are trying to strike the right balance here between not crushing the sector and allowing innovation to foster and attract new investment to their local economies, job growth, etcetera.”
Bitcoin fell 5.44 percent to $10,551.23 at 14:50 in London, according to CoinDesk.com
Read more at:
www.express.co.uk
