The US Should do The Opposite of China on Crypto: a16z Partner

Speaking at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference on Sept. 29, a16z partner Katie Haun said the U.S. should look towards China for what not to do.

She was referring to Beijing’s incessant crackdowns on the crypto industry and any activities related to the trade of digital currencies.

In her view, financial regulators in the U.S. should be doing the exact opposite, but at the moment, it appears they are following in China’s footsteps with moves to over-regulate crypto rather than ban it outright.

“This is an opportunity for the United States, because we should be doing the exact opposite in my mind in this realm of what China is doing,”

Don’t Follow China

Haun, who currently manages Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto investments, predicted that China will “tie trade, tie loans, tie other assistance to the use of essentially their stablecoin,” or CBDC.

According to CNBC, she added that the U.S. is taking the right approach with a central bank digital currency.

“I’m glad we’re studying as a country CBDCs, but we’ve publicly said as a country that we’re going to keep studying it for a couple of years. I think it’s really important that policymakers and private industry in the U.S. work together.”

Other industry experts have been critical of Uncle Sam’s lethargic approach predicting that they will get left behind. In April, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said that a Chinese-style CBDC would not work in America, hinting that it is one that enabled the state to monitor all financial transactions.

Haun stated that not all crypto industry players were against regulation, stating, “It’s not that the industry does not want regulation,” before adding, “It wants clarity, but it also does not want to be treated as a monolith.”

Grim State of Crypto Regulation Ahead?

She said, “regulation cannot be one size fits all,” referring to NFTs, which should not be treated as a financial product or service.

The executive expressed disappointment as the Securities and Exchange Commission for penalizing Coinbase over its proposed Lend product. She said some companies are getting punished despite “good faith efforts” while others “are really getting a free pass” for skirting regulations.

The current state of regulation in the U.S. is looking pretty grim as the Biden administration empowers more anti-crypto lawmakers. The latest being the nomination of staunch banking and crypto critic Saule Omarova to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).