2019 Just Might Be the Year of Crypto Regulations

By Swati Kishore

Come 2019, and ‘cryptocurrency regulation’ has become a buzzword. Governments across the world have been flirting with the idea of regulating digital assets for some time now.

The legendary bull run of 2017 saw governments take notice of the phenomenon that has been brewing ever since Satoshi published the white paper for the world’s first digital currency, Bitcoin.

While cryptocurrencies may have been experiencing a slump ever since 2018, it still remains a question as to which direction the world of cryptocurrency will move.

One thing’s clear though- digital assets are here to stay and in such a scenario it ever-so-important to protect the investors from myriad calamities that mar the crypto landscape.

Theft, hacks, and scams have left many investors burned with losses amounting to millions of dollars. Wild price fluctuation is another risk associated with investment in digital currencies.

Many believe that the introduction of regulations is the only way to counter all these risks. While the idea is open to debate, yet the present state of the crypto market leads us to believe that regulation is the only way forward to protect investors who are still burnt from the ongoing crypto nuclear winter.

The question that is pertinent to the debate on the regulation of cryptocurrencies is whether such laws will enable digital currencies to get back to their feet.

In 2019, we have heard a slew of news about government organisations looking to form regulations around the use of cryptocurrencies.

At the beginning of January, the Department of Banking in the US State of Texas published a memo for guidance on the regulatory framework for the use of cryptos under the state law.

In another news in January, we saw New York’s government set up a task force for the investigation of regulatory and legislative frameworks for the use of cryptocurrencies and the underpinning Blockchain Technology.

While may crypto proponents hold the belief that regulations may deter the development of the crypto market, however with numerous malicious events on display, it seems that the regulation may just provide investors with the added confidence to wade their way through the crypto markets without drowning.