Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law.
Editor’s note
Without breaking out the fanfare prematurely, it has been a red-letter week for crypto news. Some of the biggest markets in the world are welcoming new laws and decisions that promise to upgrade global approaches to the industry.
What we are seeing seems to be the early fruits of a broad harvest of interest in crypto, probably owing to something we’ve been talking about for months: The pandemic has people at the highest levels reconsidering how people transact. The fact that blockchain technology has become a standard part of conversations on monetary policy and international settlements has given it new legitimacy for regulators to approach.
If you graphed public attention on crypto over time, there are certainly other peaks that would dwarf the present. Late 2017 comes to mind. But the current attention from regulators worldwide is unprecedented not in quantity, but quality. They are looking to onboard blockchain tech. That license to proceed — even cautiously — seems to be thawing some of the world’s frostiest crypto laws.
Kollen Post, Policy Editor, @the_postman_