Dozens of crypto industry insiders spoke at Money 20/20 in Amsterdam earlier this month. They all agreed regulation is needed, whether enforced by regulators or self-imposed.

Vishal Sacheendran, MENA & Europe Director at Binance, called MiCA a “regulation to rule them all”, saying it showed collaboration from regulators.

“The air that we see, particularly in Europe, has been one of positivity that actually stems from regulation, which seems strange. When you look at MiCA, a landmark regulation, it’s putting Europe at the forefront of implementing a framework for crypto companies.”

Gillian Lynch, Europe CEO, Gemini

It was a sentiment echoed by other speakers. “The air that we see, particularly in Europe, has been one of positivity that actually stems from regulation, which seems strange. When you look at MiCA, a landmark regulation, it’s putting Europe at the forefront of implementing a framework for crypto companies,” Gillian Lynch, Europe CEO, Gemini, said. 

“MiCA creates an open dialogue, which is the piece that is missing in the US. All of us in the crypto world know that it’s in the early stages and the regulator is very much learning. All people are really looking for is the rule book. To date, the US has had a big influence on the crypto sector, but we’re going to see that diminish with them not leading the cause. But that’s an opportunity for other markets, whether that’s Europe, APAC or the Middle East.”

There are numerous views on regulation. In April, Barclays head of digital policy, Nicole Sandler, said at a gathering in London that the decision by regulators not to take action sooner was deliberate. “It wasn’t that it was nascent and they couldn’t regulate it, it was a choice to see where the market went,” she said. “And now they know that they have to regulate it. But the problem is regulation takes a long time from start to finish.”

Platform overhaul

Several speakers focused on the current challenges of crypto exchange platforms and the need for an improved user experience within crypto platforms and exchanges, which one speaker described as looking “like The Matrix“.

“We have to decide for ourselves as an industry or via regulation what the standards are, because there’s a plethora of standards from the good, the bad, to the ugly.”

Katherine Wooller, Business Unit Director, CoinCover

“We need to think hard about getting that next 100m users,” said Katherine Wooller, Business Unit Director, CoinCover. “We have to decide for ourselves as an industry or via regulation what the standards are, because there’s a plethora of standards from the good, the bad, to the ugly. There’s such a patchwork of regulation starting to form all over the world with regulators thinking maybe there should be third party backup and insurance products. I’m looking to see a minimum accepted standard from regulation or self-regulation”.

“If we are thinking about onboarding anyone beyond early adopters, we need to think about products and services that have real utility in our everyday lives,” said Seema Khinda Johnson, co-founder, Nuggets. “We need to make it so users don’t need to worry about a recovery phrase or a mnemonic. If there is a trusted identity behind a transaction, you can pretty much eradicate fraud overnight. [You need to have] Web2-like UX but applying it to crypo use cases.”