Tech-savvy billionaire and crypto fanatic Chamath Palihapitiya believes that U.S. regulators and watchdogs increased regulatory scrutiny on cryptocurrencies to the point that “crypto is dead in America”.

His bold claim was made on an episode of the All-In podcast in response to the news that cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is now considering to expand to other nations away from the stringent United States, blaming U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Gary Gensler:

“Crypto is dead in America. I mean now you have Gensler even blaming the banking crisis on crypto — so the United States authorities have firmly pointed their guns at crypto.” Bitcoin early investor Palihapitiya did in fact blame the SEC’s moves in tightening crypto laws, but also attributed some fault to the sector itself:

“In fairness to the regulators, [the crypto sector] did push the boundaries more than any other sector of the startup economy.” Other individuals eying the matter, including commentators, have described the issue as “Operation Choke Point 2.0”; an initiative orchestrated by regulators to de-incentivize banks from holding crypto assets or engaging in crypto-intensive activities.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-is-dead-in-america-tech-billionaire-chamath-palihapitiya

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/24/crypto-is-dead-in-america-says-tech-investor-chamath-palihapitiya.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/04/25/crypto-is-dead-in-america-early-bitcoin-investor-issues-stark-coinbase-warning-amid-price-chaos/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvTTDxMuAis