The future of cryptocurrency regulation

History may not repeat itself but it certainly does rhyme. During the dot-com bubble, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan famously observed that investors were the victims of “irrational exuberance“. This is clearly the case with cryptocurrencies today. Market valuations of cryptocurrencies remain wildly erratic. The price of bitcoin, for example, recently climbed to almost $20,000 only to precipitously fall to less than $7,000. Five years since the very first initial coin offering (ICO), ICOs have raised close to $6 billion. In fact, the total market capitalization of crypto assets now stands at $260 billion.

Much like initial public offerings (IPOs), ICOs are designed to raise money from investors. Unlike IPOs, however, investors do not receive company stock. Rather contributors receive company tokens that can be traded on crypto exchanges. As the range of ICOs has broadened and deepened, many new and established companies have begun exploring ICOs as an…