Cryptocurrency: Here come the regulators

Why the government is cracking down on crypto

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"The sun may be setting on the cryptocurrency craze," said Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times. Crypto's decline from a peak market capitalization of more than $3 trillion in late 2021 to about $800 billion today means that late-stage investors likely reaped "enormous losses." And now, initiatives in Congress that were aimed at liberalizing the crypto market "appear to be running out of steam" as regulators have "tightened the screws." Evangelists for the new form of currency had claimed it was a financial innovation that would allow those on the margins of the financial system to prosper. But after 14 years of bubbles and scams, it's become clear that crypto is merely a speculative asset, something to buy in the hope that someone else will buy it for more. That's "often described as the 'greater fool' theory." What the unbanked really need are simple and inexpensive ways to save their money, but crypto transactions, bristling with hidden fees, "tend to be just the opposite."

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