Chamath Palihapitiya, the tech billionaire who predicted two years ago that crypto, especially bitcoin, will replace gold and reach $200,000, is now considerably more wary about digital assets.
US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler’s harsh position on cryptocurrency trading platforms in the wake of the banking crisis, the tech expert claimed, was a major contributor to its decline.
“Crypto is dead in America,” Palihapitiya declared.
According to the Bitcoin bull Palihapitiya, who blamed the the digital currency’s demise entirely on authorities, the digital currency sector in the United States has been choked to death.
Pointing Guns At Crypto
He stated:
“Now you have (Gensler) even blaming the banking crisis on crypto. So, the United States authorities have firmly pointed their guns at crypto.”
In the words of Palihapitiya, US authorities have become far more aggressive in their pursuit of industry bad actors. But, according to Gensler, crypto trading platforms must follow rigorous US securities rules.
Chamath Palihapitiya. Image: Mike Windle/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
Several companies, including Bittrex and Coinbase Global Inc., have been charged by the SEC for allegedly trading unregistered securities.
The February proposal to bar financial advisors from trading in bitcoin and the possibility of legal action against a number of Coinbase products are recent instances of the SEC’s enforcement actions.
Coinbase Ready For Court War
Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong has said that his company is ready for a protracted legal battle with the SEC and is also thinking about leaving the United States if more regulatory clarity is not obtained.
Bittrex has already indicated that it will cease operations in the United States owing to “continued regulatory uncertainty.”
Some lawmakers advocated for the creation of a new regulatory framework to prevent firms from expanding internationally.
Despite his past predictions, Palihapitiya did not specify when he expects the price of Bitcoin to climb again. He thinks that the ascent of Bitcoin was influenced by people’s loss of faith in leaders.
BTC total market cap nearly unchanged and still at $529 billion on the daily chart at TradingView.com
Meanwhile, some pundits have dubbed the situation “Operation Choke Point 2.0” – an alleged coordinated effort by regulators to prevent banks from holding bitcoin or giving services to crypto firms.
Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, reached a peak of almost $69,000 in November 2021, but the market swiftly reversed as the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to battle inflation.
Bitcoin was selling at $27,378 at the time of writing, down 7.6% in the previous seven days, according to statistics from crypto market tracker CoinMarketCap.
-Featured image from Adobe Stock