Crypto’s next bull run will come from the East: Gemini co-founder

Crypto’s next bull run will start in Asia, according to Cameron Winklevoss, an American investor and co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini.

His comments have come amid an increase in enforcement actions and looming crackdowns from US regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“My job atm is that the next bull run is going to start in the east,” Winklevoss so in a tweet on February 19.

“It will be a humbling reminder that crypto is a global asset class and that the West, indeed the US, has always only had two options: embrace it or be left behind.”

“It cannot be stopped. We know that, he added.

According to Chainalysis, Central and South Asia and Oceania (CSAO) was the third largest cryptocurrency market in its 2022 index. Residents from these regions received $932 billion in cryptocurrency value from July 2021 to June 2022.

The CSAO was also home to seven of the top 20 countries in 2022’s index: Vietnam (1), the Philippines (2), India (4), Pakistan (6), Thailand (8), Nepal (16) and Indonesia (20) .

In his Twitter thread, Winklevoss said that governments that fail to provide clear regulations and honest guidance on crypto will be “left in the dust” and miss out on “the biggest period of growth since the rise of the commercial Internet,” adding:

“And that would mean missing out on shaping and being a fundamental part of the future financial infrastructure of this world (and beyond).”

Winklevoss is neither the first nor the last to suggest that America’s approach to crypto will drive away the industry, or that Asia could initiate the next crypto growth cycle.

Coinbase CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong said the strict actions by US regulators, including the SEC, could further drive crypto business offshore.

Meanwhile, an independent market analyst on Twitter — known as GCR — also prophesied that “China, (and Asia in general) will fuel the next run,” in a Jan. 8 post to their 147,300 followers.

“It will take quite some time to melt Western cynicism towards this space, but the East is rising and longing to bow.”

Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of crypto derivatives giant BitMEX, made a prediction last October that the next bull run will start as China moves back into the market and went a step further to say that Hong Kong has an important role to play in this process.

Hayes argued that Hong Kong could become the testing ground for Beijing to experiment with crypto markets and act as a hub for Chinese capital to find its way into the global crypto markets.

At the time, he said “China hasn’t abandoned crypto — it’s just been dormant.”

Related: Hong Kong wants to become crypto hub despite industry crisis

Earlier this year, Hong Kong’s Finance Secretary Paul Chan gave a speech on January 9 at the POW’ER Hong Kong Web3 Innovators Summit, where he revealed that lawmakers passed legislation to set up a licensing system for virtual asset service providers in December.

As a result of the changes in legislation, a “Chinese coin pump” narrative has gained attention as speculation grows over whether the regulatory easements in Hong Kong will lead to a massive increase in utility tokens for Asian exchanges.