Barclays’ Head of Digital Policy Nicole Sandler claims that the lack of crypto regulation in the area was an intentional act by policymakers.
As part of his explanation, she said the cryptocurrency industry was left unattended to see what would become of it. Sandler suggested that the market was intentionally left to die a natural death. Many years after and that is still not the case.
Sandler made this statement while sitting on a panel at the Citi Digital Money Symposium in London. The panel discussed crypto regulations in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. The Barclays executive explained that the crypto industry’s nascence was far from the reason why regulators left it without robust regulations.
“I think one thing certain policymakers have said is that they left this market to do what it wanted to do because they thought it would essentially die. And it hasn’t died, it’s grown, it’s grown, it’s grown,” she said
“It wasn’t that it was nascent and they couldn’t regulate it, it was a choice to see where the market went,” she added, saying. “..now they know that they have to regulate it. But the problem is regulation takes a long time from start to finish.”
Watchdogs Pushing for Crypto Regulation
The current growth of the cryptocurrency industry plus the recent happenings in the sector have rekindled the interest of regulators. Watchdogs all over the world now see a reason to regulate the fast-growing industry.
Even Sandler agreed that appropriate crypto regulation may have helped to prevent the implosion of Bahamian-headquartered digital assets service provider FTX which happened almost five months ago.
At the same time, she explained that the lack of regulation was not the only reason for the unintended collapse. Sam Bankman-Fried, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FTX was indicted by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for misappropriation of customers’ funds. The regulator went ahead to seize $3.5 billion worth of FTX assets in preparation to refund affected investors.
Bankman-Fried was later arrested but was left off the incarceration hook after signing a $250 million bail bond.
