I didn't realize how big and entangled FTX was. jeesus. Michael Lewis being involved is a breathtaking cherry on top of this formerly 32B-sized cake. So here's my hope: this event will launch investigations, will shake up the US gov enough to pour more, not less, resources into regulating the crypto space. Ever since the ICO days has the pendulum swung towards more VC money, more centralization, less transparency. This event might be big enough to, on its own, swing the pendulum back towards more accessible, transparent and regulated version of crypto. On a scale from one to ten how naive/starry-eyed is this hope?
The interesting development, as I see it, is Gary Gentsler and the SEC attempting to paint the CFTC with it as a way to distract from how deeply in bed he is with all this. Because ultimately? I think the CFTC has the charter to regulate blockchains and the SEC has the charter to regulate exchanges. But right now? I think they're both trying to avoid the impression that meeting with a large exchange in the course of determining regulation was a bunch of chummy insiders. I have been maintaining for... six? Seven? years now that any exchange that interacts with Americans needs Bitlicense-level oversight. I think that's gonna be the easy, everybody-approves-it legislation - "hey look in New York State, where all the money wants to play anyway, there have been stringent rules in place for the past eight years. How much contagion spilled over New York? None. How much loss did New Yorkers suffer from New-York-legal exchanges? None. Is the legislation battle-tested, capitalist-approved? Yes. ...and then there's the witch hunts.