Many people have been speculating all day as to why Bitcoin is up so much. The guesses have ranged from oligarchs worried about governments freezing their global bank accounts, to the UK moving away from a Bitcoin trading tax. While both those things may have played a role, I think the primary driver might be be comments from Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services, on the sidelines of a banking conference today.
I’m not sure what time these comments were made, but it appears Lawsky wants to make sure New York state ends up being a global center for Bitcoin trading. This seems like a big deal to me.
From the UK’s Telegraph:
The collapse of the bitcoin exchange Mt Gox is part of a struggle for survival that could ultimately strengthen the virtual currency industry, New York’s banking regulator has said.
“It’s on the one hand a setback, on the other hand it will cause further improvements in this industry and some more regulatory involvement,” Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services, told Reuters.
“It’s part of [a] shaking out,” he said on the sidelines of a banking conference in the US.
Mr Lawsky wants to attract healthy bitcoin operators to the state, and has floated the idea of launching a “BitLicense” to regulate operators in the industry, and to align any new rules with existing financial regulation.
Mr Lawsky identified one bitcoin exchange the agency is talking to: Barry Silbert’s SecondMarket Holdings, modelled after the New York Stock Exchange.
“We’ve had several applications, I wouldn’t say they’re on hold but they’re being worked on, on a parallel path … to moving the regs,” Mr Lawsky told reporters. “Ask me later this week, we are working on that.”
Phase 2 of Bitcoin is in full swing.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Fuck you New York. bitcoin is decentralized.
no regulation required thank you very much
If regulation will really protect consumers and not suppress the marketplace, then so be it. NY could attract billions into BTC if that happens. The key is no derivatives should be allowed. That’s how they manipulate markets.
“If”
Regulation is a weapon in the hands of the powerful, to a degree proportional to the corruption in society. New York regulators? No thanks.