After FTX, Crypto Must Follow the Rules

On Nov 17, 2022

Nov. 17, 2022 9:21 am ET

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stefani reynolds/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Your editorial “The FTX Crypto Fiasco” (Nov. 11) highlights the worrisome lack of transparency in the crypto market as well as the seemingly endless string of bankruptcies and liquidity crises that have dominated the headlines this year. The FTX fiasco is symptomatic of more than a lack of safeguards and consumer protections in crypto. The collapse has exacerbated an already deepening crisis of trust. The general perception of crypto being a wild, out-of-control, nascent industry unable to police itself will be a red warning signal in the eyes of regulators, who won’t allow this framework to sit outside the rule of law for much longer.

Those in the crypto community who realize how bad this looks should be going out of their way to engage with policy makers to make the market safer and more transparent. Failure to do so will result in heavier-handed regulation down the line, which could potentially stifle many of crypto’s positive attributes.

Blockchain can be a force for tremendous good in bringing efficiency and cost savings to traditional financial market infrastructure. To realize these benefits, crypto has no choice but to begin playing by the rules of this very system.

Charley Cooper

Managing director, R3

New York

Mr. Cooper was chief operating officer of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, 2005-07.

I thought I was too dumb to figure out cryptocurrency, but no! The emperor truly has no clothes.

Julianne Snell

Queen Creek, Ariz.

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