Far smarter to analyze the phenomenon from an exact angle: Regulators’ approach on which, today, the fate of the crypto world depends.
After the announcement (and in some cases also the start) of business initiatives, Regulators began to raise their voice.
In some cases, multi-million dollars projects have been strongly opposed, if not permanently blocked by measures from industry’s Authorities. The main reason lies in the fact that cryptocurrencies, in some cases, seem to move in an area very close to the financial universe. And, as was predictable, financial Regulators began to react.
However, the landscape is heterogeneous. Each State has national Regulators that, while respecting a generally shared international framework, follow approaches that are not always similar to each other. Therefore, also in this case, what is valid for the U.S. SEC (Security Exchange Commission) does not apply in the same way for the Swiss FINMA (Financial Market Supervisory Authority). The latter is characterized by a more in-depth and conscious approach to the typical dynamics of cryptocurrencies. It is not by chance that the Libra Association has its headquarters in Geneva.
Furthermore, in many cases, Regulators’ initiatives do not reflect guidelines from national legislators or governments. For this reason, the rules could change considerably in a short time, where a regulatory authority measure — adopted in the absence of a specific higher-ranking regulation — is overtaken by a legislative measure that goes in the opposite direction. In short, the legislator could change the rules of the game outlined to date.
Regulators of the financial sector have been interested in the theme of the ICO c.d. (Initial Coin Offering) for some years now. Also, the term “coin” was born with a meaning that followed the bitcoin phenomenon (and then the cryptocurrencies born later). This meaning can be said remarkably transformed, if not exceeded, as a result of the most varied connotations that the term has assumed with the progressive development of the crypto industry, so much that the term “ICO” is being progressively replaced by other acronyms, including the term “ITO” (Initial Token Offering).
