Popular Tech Investor Chamath Palihapitiya Says ‘Crypto Is Dead in America’

UTC by Bhushan Akolkar · 3 min read
Popular Tech Investor Chamath Palihapitiya Says ‘Crypto Is Dead in America’
Photo: TechCrunch / Flickr

Chamath Palihapitiya blamed the US regulators for their heavy crackdown recently on the US crypto industry and all associated players.

In the latest regulatory developments taking place in the United States, popular tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya shared a very cautious move about crypto assets. Over the last few years, Palihapitiya has been sharing bullish views about Bitcoin stating that it has replaced gold and that the BTC price would shoot to $200,000.

Chamath Palihapitiya and His Opinion on Crypto

During the latest interview on the All-In podcast, the tech investor blamed the demise of crypto on US regulators. The regulatory action in the United States has recently turned a lot more aggressive following the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX in November 2022. Since then, the US SEC has been going hammer and tongs after SEC chief Gary Gensler stating that crypto firms should strictly abide by the securities laws.

Interestingly, during his recent testimony, Gary Gensler blamed crypto as the reason behind the recent banking crisis. Of course, it has received a severe backlash from the crypto community. Palihapitiya said: “You had Gensler even blaming the banking crisis on crypto. The United States authorities have firmly pointed their guns at crypto.”

The SEC has been ramping up its enforcement of the crypto industry while alleging that most companies and projects have been selling digital assets as unregistered securities. Earlier this year, the SEC proposed rules that would determine which companies can custody of customers’ digital assets. Referring to the crypto companies facing the regulatory backlash, Palihapitiya said:

They “were probably the ones that were the most threatening to the establishment. And they were the ones that, in fairness to the regulators, did push the boundaries more than any other sector of the startup economy. Now they’re paying the price for that. The bill has come due for them.”

Bitcoin at $200,000?

Chamath Palihapitiya is one of those investors who have been very bullish about the long-term prospects for Bitcoin (BTC). Back in early 2021, just ahead of the mega bull run, Chamath said that the BTC price would rise from $39,000 at the time to $100,000 and then up to $200,000.

However, he didn’t mention any specific timeline for the same but added: “Five years, 10 years, but it’s going there. And the reason is that every time you see all of this stuff happening, it just reminds you that, wow, our leaders are not as trustworthy and reliable as they used to be.”

By the end of 2021, when BTC was trading close to its all-time high, Palihapitiya said that Bitcoin had effectively replaced gold.

In the latest development, banking giant Standard Chartered noted that the BTC price can climb all the way to $100,000 adding that the “crypto winter” is now over.

Bitcoin News, Cryptocurrency News, News
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