[2018-06-09] Bart Smith Says Regulatory Clarity Will Jump-start Institutional In

[ivanpoldark]

Bart Smith, who was crowned “Wall Street’s Crypto King” by CNBC, is optimistic that institutional investors will start pouring money into the cryptocurrency market once more regulatory clarity is provided.

Smith heads the digital asset group at Pennsylvania-based investment firm Susquehanna International Group, which first experimented with bitcoin trading in 2014.

Since then, the privately-held company has launched a crypto trading desk manned by a dozen traders who buy and sell millions of dollars in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies every day.

“We have a dedicated team of traders and technologists,” he told CNBC. “We’ve been trading bitcoin primarily, but in 2017 as the marketplace expanded, we expanded the number of coins we were trading and the number of exchanges we were providing liquidity on.”

Smith added: “We are trading on average a couple hundred million dollars a day [on bitcoin futures] across CME and CFE combined that’s not retail.”

More Or Less Regulation Is Not the Issue

Smith says cryptocurrency evangelists shouldn’t focus so much on whether or not there should be regulation, but moreso on the importance of regulatory clarity.

“There’s a big debate going on about whether there should be more or less [crypto] regulation. From our standpoint, it’s really about regulatory clarity,” Smith noted. “There has been a tremendous amount of focus on the SEC and Chairman Clayton’s comments. But it’s really a whole host of other regulatory agencies out there, because the ecosystem expands beyond the traditional financial assets.”

Smith underscored:

“[Regulatory] clarity will allow institutions to come in more than anything else because institutions don’t like to invest into uncertainty. So we’re just taking the most conservative approach that we can.”

Read more: https://www.ccn.com/wall-streets-crypto-king-says-regulatory-clarity-will-jumpstart-institutional-investments/

[Slow death]

Bart Smith, who was crowned “Wall Street’s Crypto King” by CNBC, is optimistic that institutional investors will start pouring money into the cryptocurrency market once more regulatory clarity is provided.

this is a big problem, when will we have this "clarity"? what prevents us from having that clarity? and what that "clarity" would be. Many governments only go to press to say, "let's regulate bitcoin" and a month after they say "let's regulate bitcoin". they say again: "we're banning bitcoin" another month they say "we're following the situation closely" they do not even know what they want because in some cases they even charge taxes

institutions don’t like to invest into uncertainty

truth. but they will have to wait for many years if they are even waiting for such clarity

[gentlemand]

Yup. He's nailed it. It doesn't need to be super dramatic or incredibly comprehensive, all it needs to be is clear. It's no good leaving people dithering over an amber light. Give them a green or a red and they can start to plan properly around it.

As an example the UK banks have never wanted anything to do with Bitcoin. Most people claim it's some sort of conspiracy. I'd say the truth is that the government hasn't provided one single statement about crypto's regulatory status. Zilch. Under those circumstances why would a bank risk getting involved in something that may bite them hard when the government does get around to saying something? Easier to steer clear completely.