Cardano ($ADA) Founder on the Importance of Crypto-Friendly Regulatory Frameworks

On Thursday (October 13), Charles Hoskinson, Co-Founder and CEO of Input Output Global (aka “IOG”), the blockchain technology firm behind Cardano’s R&D, explained the importance of having regulation that appreciates the benefits offered by cryptocurrencies.

According to a report by The Daily Hodl, the IOG CEO said:

“It’s necessary for us to get [to] the next level. As many of you know, we want Cardano and cryptocurrencies in general to become the financial operating systems of the world. And my big passion in life has always been banking the unbanked and giving the unbanked economic identity that they control, that’s self-sovereign and ultimately global in nature, and ensuring human rights, the freedom of association, commerce and expression.

“To accomplish that there needs to be a regulatory regime that acknowledges the existence of cryptocurrencies, views them as positive things and appreciates the liberty that they provide people.“

On October 11, Hoskinson explained in an interview why he is very bullish on crypto in the long term.

His comments were made during an interview with Maria Bartiromo, the anchor of “Mornings with Maria”, on American cable TV channel Fox Business Network (FBN).

When Bartiromo asked Hoskinson for his current assessment of the crypto market and how he expected crypto regulation in the U.S. to change, the IOG CEO replied:

“It’s a tough market. The stock markets are down nine trillion dollars, and the crypto markets don’t seem to be immune to that, but, you know, I’ve been through seven boom and bus cycles in the last eight years. So, we’ve gotten pretty used to it. We’ve gotten used to volatility, but the fundamentals are still very strong.

“All the infrastructure continues to be built. There’s a lot of great exchanges doing wonderful things. A lot of good protocols doing things. So, like all things, it’s businesses as usual, and most the major actors are still building and still doing interesting things. So, I’m overall very optimistic in a long term, but it’s going to be a rough short term.“

Then, when asked about Coinbase receiving regulatory approval to operate in Singapore, Hoskinson said:

“Well, the United States has been very difficult, and as a result, a lot of crypto companies are going global and that ultimately it means they’re moving jobs and opportunities outside of the United States, and so unless and until that environment gets better, we’re going to continue to see this trend where American companies diversify, whether it be Ripple or Coinbase, and it’s just something that we’ve had to deal with. But overall, it shows you that the people at Coinbase and others in the industry are quite bullish and optimistic about global growth.“

Mitch Roschelle, who is the founding partner of Macro Trends Advisors LLC and who appears regularly as a guest on Fox Business, asked Hoskinson how cryptoassets would be affected by the slowdown in the global economy.

The IOG CEO replied:

“I used to believe that crypto would be counter cyclic and the place that people would put assets when they were fearful of the global economy, but so far they seem to be moving in parallel with tech stocks and some of the more standard equity markets. So that’s kind of a problem. But all things considered, I think that long term the crypto markets are going to decouple from the traditional marketplaces and have their own economy… and, you know, it’s probably going to occur in the next 24-36 months.“

Bartiromo then wanted to know how major blockchain upgrades — like the ones that Ethereum and Cardano have had recently — improve the ecosystem.

Hoskinson told her:

“Well, it’s just like many of the things that we do. We are a slow and methodical project…. Everything we do… is all about making things better, faster, and cheaper, and ultimately improving use and utility in the platform. So, Vasil was about 12 months of work, and we just got it out last month, and it’s really exciting to see that it’s caused a lot of great positive upgrades in our community.

“But more broadly, when we look at the cryptocurrency space, this is the the case. Most people are building, and while the macro environment is not so positive, the individual environment of each cryptocurrency, whether it be Ethereum with the Merge or Cardano with Vasil, is looking better and better every day, and we keep getting more capabilities… There’s great growth and everything from GameFi to metaverse to NFTs to DeFi. So, I’m very bullish in the long term.“