Cryptos Are ‘Ready for Rishi’ as Bitcoin Investors Hot to Monitor

By now you’ve probably heard about the salad that survived the now former British Prime Minister Liz Truss and that Rishi Sunak has taken over.

There’s a lot to know about Sunak: he’s the first colored person to become Prime Minister, the youngest ever Prime Minister, was the former Chancellor of the Exchequer under Boris Johnson, and has a pretty cool “I told you so” rise to power after losing barely for Truss as she criticized the “adventure economy” that immediately forced her out.

Another cool thing about Rishi is that he could be an excellent catalyst for crypto as he has high ambitions to make the UK a crypto hub.

Ready for regulation

We have long said that crypto is better with regulation.

A record $14 billion was stolen by crypto fraudsters and hackers in 2021, who in 2022 responded “hold my beer” as it bombarded investors with headline errors from Celsius, 3Arrows, Terra and more.

Despite calls from some crypto-enthusiasts to keep the so-called “Wild West” going, it seems that the majority of market participants are beginning to prefer oversight.

According to a recent Bloomberg MLIV Pulse Survey, 65% of retail investors and 56% of professional investors are more likely to invest in crypto when there are more rules and regulators’ eyes on the space.

This is interesting as it certainly suggests that retail investors are most hurt by the lack of regulation. Also, given that professional traders tend to be more conservative, you can also assume that they stick more to the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum, rather than trying to pull an Andy Dufrense and crawl through 500 yards of sh*tcoins and come clean out the other side.

Regulations help bring stability to the markets by increasing investor confidence. As speculation drives the market less, long-term investors begin to make up a larger share of the pie, reducing volatility.

Ready for Rishi

Enough Shawshank, back to Prime Minister Rishi.

During his time as finance minister, Sunak introduced the “Financial Services and Markets Bill”, which, if passed, could give local regulators broad jurisdiction over cryptos and see stablecoins fall under payments regulations – making them an accepted form of payment . .

Sunak aims to introduce measures including “legislation for a ‘financial market infrastructure sandbox’ to help businesses innovate, an FCA-led ‘CryptoSprint’, collaboration with the Royal Mint on an NFT, and an engagement group to work more closely with industry .”

Although ultimately I don’t think there is a need for yet another NFT commemorative collection, nor is it emblematic of a “forward-looking approach” (and instead is a step back towards the celebrity-shilled NFTs we try moving away from), the rest could help bring crypto back to the UK after many fled the 2020 move to have crypto companies sign up for approval.

Memorabilia aside, it would be massive for the country to take concrete steps forward. Transferring some of the duties to local regulators would create a competitive atmosphere that could help strike a balance between industry growth and investor protection.

Furthermore, if the UK started to gain meaningful traction, it would surely motivate the US to stop dragging its feet with its research on how to regulate crypto.

Ultimately, it is not good for crypto investors that creators prefer to sneak into the shadows of less regulated countries. Just as how the FDIC was critical in restoring confidence in the banks, oversight is necessary to instill confidence in the nascent technology.

Right now, crypto is in its own version of Andy’s sh*t crawl, but with real action, retail investors can come out clean on the other side.