Sam Bankman-Fried to step back from crypto lobbying and let ‘Crypto Twitter’ take charge
Sam Bankman-Fried, the outspoken CEO and founder of major crypto exchange FTX, has offered what he calls his “final thoughts” on the optimal lobbying strategy for the crypto and blockchain industry that could pave the way for more industry-friendly regulation in the US. At the same time, he warned the industry about the potential negative outcome of engaging in “relatively adversarial/adversarial strategies”
The October 29 statement comes shortly after the entrepreneur expressed what could be considered his support for some of the provisions of the controversial Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), a bill being debated by the US Congress.
“I truly believe regulation is going to get better, clearer and create avenues for crypto to come back on land,” he tweeted on October 23.
Meanwhile, some industry observers have accused the bill of a potentially harmful impact on decentralized finance (DeFi) due to replacing software codes with control intermediaries.
In his latest series of tweets, Bankman-Fried admitted that, despite their past differences, he ultimately agrees with Erik Voorhees, CEO and founder of decentralized exchange ShapeShift and noted opponent of crypto regulation, about “what is important and right policy”, namely economic freedom, elimination of “discriminatory, classist standards of investment”, and ensuring freedom for the DeFi sector.
“I don’t always agree on the best strategy! But I could be wrong. And more importantly, it’s not my decision to make – it’s the community’s. So: *I won’t push against the community’s strategy* even where I think it might is not the most efficient way to achieve the goal, acknowledged FTX’s CEO.
The head of the exchange said that he hopes that “the crypto-twitter community has carefully considered all the details of possible bills and policy proposals, and that the crypto-twitter community correctly understands the details of policy-making and negotiations and alliances in DC.”
At the same time, Bankman-Fried expressed his concern over the potential implications of betting the cryptosphere’s future on what he described as “some relatively bristling/conflicting strategies” that could end up backfiring and undermining DeFi’s growth.
“There are a large number of possible paths here – some quite subtle – and I’m concerned that some people haven’t fully thought out, empirically, what the outcome would be of possible decisions we could make,” according to the founder.
“But hopefully I’m wrong about that. Crypto Twitter, take the wheel,” he said.
In response to SBF’s tweets, Voorhees asked the exchange’s CEO if he would be “willing to formally ask the Senate Ag Committee to delay marking up the DCCPA until next year?”
