The United States is an important market for any industry, and crypto is no exception. However, the recent trends suggest that the crypto industry is steadily declining in the country, as many major companies are withdrawing operations in the US.
The recent hostility from the government, the Congress, the Senate, and even from regulatory organizations have worsened the situation. The final nail in the coffin was President Donald Trump’s tweet stating that cryptos assist anti-social activities like drug trafficking.
Head of crypto research at The Block, Larry Cermak, tweeted that the recent trend in the US is a serious issue. He indicated that the companies withdraw operations from the country or being investigated by the regulators is a bad sign for the future of the crypto industry in the US.
This is getting quite serious. Let's summarize:
– Both BitMEX and Bitfinex are now investigated for servicing U.S. customers
– Bittrex and Poloniex started to geo-block tokens from the U.S.
– Binance pulled crypto-to-crypto trading out of the U.S. completely
— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) July 19, 2019
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Crypto trading platforms like Bittrex and Poloniex have geo-blocked the US customers, while Binance has withdrawn crypto-to-crypto trading services from the country. Those serving US customers, like BitMEX and Bitfinex, are facing serious regulatory issues, and are being investigated by the agencies.
Regulators in the US want the crypto industry to be heavily regulated by making mandatory KYC, forcing them to amend their privacy policies. This means that companies will have to compromise on the privacy front, a core principle which made crypto so popular across the globe.
Especially, after the unveiling of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, legislators have come out openly in criticism of digital currencies. It is not a hidden fact that cryptocurrencies are a threat to the dominance of the US dollar globally, which is why the US regulators want to control them. However, in the process of doing so, they are killing the crypto industry in the United States.
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Regulators need to realize that if at all, they want to compete with Bitcoin, they need to find innovative ways to do it rather than simply banning it. Even if they do ban crypto in the US or force the industry to die, controlling influence outside the country is not possible. That way, Bitcoin and crypto are the inevitable future, which the US will have to accept, sooner or later.
