It is no secret that this year is actually special not only for Bitcoin but for the entire crypto industry. You have JP Morgan having their own JP Morgan Coin. In addition to this, you have Facebook’s Libra. Both of which are movers in today’s crypto industry. In fact, it has allowed Bitcoin to break out of $13K level.
It seems that things are still looking interesting in today’s crypto industry. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon in an interview mentioned that they are already doing research on “tokenization” Solomon believes that there will be changes in the way regulators approach cryptos in the near future. He mentioned that “I think regulators around the world are watching what’s going on. They wonder how it will work and are very attentive to payment flows. There will be a change in regulations, that’s for sure”.
Possible Partnership Between Libra and Goldman Sachs?
When it comes to the possibility of a partnership between Facebook’s Libra and Goldman Sachs, Solomon declined to give any comment. However, he believes that mainstream financial organizations are going to take cryptocurrencies more seriously. He said that “Many people are looking in this direction. But it is too early to say which platform will prevail. Whether (Facebook) is the platform or one of the other fifty that people are watching that will make the most progress, I can not tell you”.
Issues with Facebook’s Libra
There are a lot of issues surrounding Facebook’s Libra. For instance, there are those who fear that companies can have a leverage when it comes to influencing governments, something that is not far from reality considering that Facebook partnered with Uber, PayPal, and many other companies to form Libra.
Another important issue that has to be addressed is the possibility that Facebook’s Libra could actually be used for illegal activities. According to Representative Emmanuel Clever, “We’ve seen the significant damage that foreign adversaries and bad actors have wrought on our democracy through Facebook’s platform, and that was simply through messaging and advertising”.
Now, he added that “Before we allow such a giant corporation to begin processing millions to billions of financial transactions, we have to study these issues and ensure we have the tools ad guardrails in place to deter terrorists, extremists, and/or enemies from utilizing such a platform to do harm to our nation”.
Regulatory Clarity
Regulatory clarity has never been so relevant today. In fact, the US SEC has been looking to target unregistered ICOs. In 2017, Bitcoin price skyrocketed to near $20K mainly because of FOMO on the part of investors looking for a quick buck. Those were the days when the number of ICOs increased and was therefore dubbed as ICO Mania. Unfortunately, it was an unhealthy move for the industry. It wasn’t a surprise that the Bitcoin fell by more than 80% after 2017 after regulators tried to make sense of the crypto industry.
Though a lot of work has to be done, let’s admit that things are actually better than they used to be. And though regulatory clarity is still far from over, we are actually getting there as evidenced by crypto’s growing adoption.
