The crypto space was shaken 2 weeks ago when Terra’s UST and Luna currencies crumbled in a matter of minutes. With public perception already on the red due to the ongoing red market, the plummeting of one of the most popular cryptocurrencies was a further reason for concern. Over the next few days, lawsuits were filed against the project co-founders, public outcry ensued, and lawmakers around the world redoubled their regulatory efforts.
The topic of regulating crypto has been a sensible matter ever since Bitcoin launched back in 2009 but it wasn’t until March when the Biden administration ordered regulators to coordinate their efforts. In a similar way, lawmakers have been aware of the existence of cryptocurrency and its relevance to the global economy but failed to create legislation around it. Speaking with CNBC, Sen. Cory Booker said:
“There need to be rules to this game that make it more predictable, transparent, where there are the needed consumer protections. What we don’t want to do is choke a new industry and innovation out so that we lose out on opportunities.”
While many crypto enthusiasts have gotten used to thinking of regulation as a negative, most experts agree that a regulatory framework would prove beneficial. However, as Sen. Booker said, legislators and regulators have the difficult task of implementing regulatory legislation without stopping innovation.
Fortunately for the United States, the nation has a long history of driving innovation and forward-thinking when it comes to tech, making its slow response to the crypto revolution even more surprising. Investment firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital have been doubling down on crypto over the past years, with the former recently announcing the raising of a $4.5 billion crypto fund.
Other governments around the world are also taking steps to regulate cryptocurrency, with the UK announcing back in April that it planned to “lead the way” when it has to crypto. This is not surprising when considering that local tech investors like L Marks have been investing in crypto and blockchain startups for a while, all while helping launch innovation programs all around the world.
L Marks, the brainchild of entrepreneur Stuart Marks and innovation expert Daniel Saunders, has been creating programs specifically designed to drive innovation ever since its founding back in 2014. These have taken place all around the world in over 80 countries including the UK, Japan, Israel, and the United States, helping over 10,000 startups a year.
Having created the largest number of corporate innovation labs in the UK, L Marks has the expertise it takes to help crypto and blockchain startups navigate an unregulated industry. This is extremely important as being able to pivot to comply with new regulations could be a matter of life or death for startups and companies in the early stages.
Innovation expert and L Marks Chief Executive Officer Daniel Saunders says about the organization’s mission: “We created a new process to harness startup innovation to meet the needs and challenges of the changing business landscape.”
But with crypto adoption not only being limited to startups and individual investors, innovation programs within a company can be not extremely useful when it comes to R&D but also highly profitable. Traditional organizations like BMW, British Airways, Lloyd’s of London, and American Electric Powerjus, are only some of the organizations collaborating with L Mark.
With regulatory efforts being redoubled as a result of the cryptocurrency market crash and other negative events like that of Tera’s crash, innovation efforts will prove quintessential to sustaining the crypto space. The fact that lawmakers seem aware of the importance of keeping crypto innovation is also a huge plus… but they might want to listen to those who know the most.
