Crypto Industry Should Brace For 'Wall Street-Esque Regulation,' Expert Warns

The cryptocurrency industry should expect and prepare for financial regulation — not unlike the mainstream financial landscape — according to Marco Santori, chief legal officer of the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange.

What happened: According to a Thursday Bloomberg report, Santori told those who believe the crypto industry will not see stricter regulations they are "living in a fantasy world."

According to Santori, the regulation that is coming is "more Wall Street-like regulation from governments in the U.S. and abroad," and the exchange he is working at "has simply been practical about that future."

In mid-September 2020, Forbes reported that Kraken became the first crypto institution to obtain a crypto bank charter approval in the United States history after a decision made by Wyoming regulators.

Recently, major United States crypto exchange Coinbase Inc. COIN announced it will refrain from offering its lending product after the Securities and Exchange Commission threatened to sue the firm if it launched the service. The company's CEO Brian Armstrong described the regulator's behavior as "sketchy" and expressed a harsh opinion over its enforcement actions.

Santori said that he is familiar with the episode and things that Armstrong was "saying what a lot of people are thinking" in the cryptocurrency space.

Despite that, he said that he "can’t support that kind of approach with regulators." He pointed out that "it's never been successful historically and from our experience, we've found the SEC open to discussion."