Sen. Warren and the Wild West of Crypto

America has a working regulatory regime. It needs to be adapted to digital-asset exchanges

Letter to The WSJ.

"Behind the problem with FTX was the SEC’s failure to create a path for digital-asset exchanges. This drove FTX to do its business overseas, where it was able to make its own rules and gamble with investors’ deposits. Existing regulatory regimes in the U.S. and U.S.-based companies remain the best protections against fraud (“Regulate Crypto or It’ll Take Down the Economy” by Elizabeth Warren, op-ed, Nov. 23).

Not every financial instrument is guaranteed a return on investment. Risk is inherent. In 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, Pets.com lost nearly $150 million, but online retail became one of the most profitable investments in history.

Following the flawed, sky-is-falling, “Chicken Little” logic of Sen. Warren, regulators in 2000 should have forced the internet into a government-run, highly regulated platform, instead of allowing it to mature naturally into the successful marketplace it is today.

Like the internet of 2000, the digital-asset market of 2022 should abide by existing consumer-protection rules and allow digital-asset securities, commodities and exchanges. Overregulating, however, will stifle innovation and limit consumer choice.

Digital assets provide the opportunity to make more private, secure and quick transactions across entirely electronic platforms. This is certainly innovative, but hardly likely to take down the entire economy.

David McIntosh

President, Club for Growth

Washington"