“They’re on their skis.”
Chris Lehane, chief strategy officer at Haun Ventures, said at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 that since the regulatory landscape remains fragile for cryptocurrency operators, some regulators may be overreaching when it comes to creating frameworks for the industry.
“The government had a strategy,” Lehane said. But when the SEC looks at cryptocurrencies or other hot sectors like artificial intelligence, it uses an “enforcement-only approach to essentially set policy for the entire United States and cryptocurrencies.”
In recent months, the SEC has filed a number of lawsuits against major cryptocurrency companies, including Binance and Coinbase, and even against celebrities like Mila Kunis. But last month, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Grayscale, a digital asset management company, in a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission over the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund matter, which could be good news for the industry.
“The SEC has lost a number of cases — which never happens — which tells you a little bit about how they’re over their sleds,” Lehane said. “But this is very risky [the government] Don’t approach this strategically.