Evidence of the authorities’ fight against the cryptocurrency industry is plentiful even now. In particular, this week the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Binance, accusing the platform of providing access to derivatives for US residents. At the same time, representatives of the exchange claim that Americans cannot use its facilities, because it requires them to disclose their own identity during KYC procedures.

This is not the first time that Novogratz himself has commented on the topic of cryptocurrency regulation. According to him, the authorities should focus on artificial intelligence rather than digital assets. Still, the former technology has much more negative potential.

Why cryptocurrencies are banned

According to Novogratz, even the US banking crisis could be part of a more global strategy. Here’s his quote on the subject.

Think about Signature Bank and how quickly they were shut down. Look, we’re not up to speed on all things. Barney Frank, who sits on the board of Republic Bank and Signature Bank, said: “It’s crazy, they’re closing them down. My friends in the banking industry also said there was no apparent reason for the banks to close.

Recall that the trigger for such rumours was the lack of insolvency of Signature Bank. That is, while Silicon Valley Bank did have money problems, Signature did not have a global liquidity shortage. Because of that, cryptocurrency users assumed that in this way the authorities simply want to kill the decentralized assets industry - or at least create serious problems for it.

Signature Bank is among three major U.S. banks that will collapse in March 2023. Most interestingly, it was these banks that were actively partnering with cryptocurrency companies. Because of their closure, the liquidity of the crypto market has shrunk significantly as it has become much more difficult for fans of the latter to inject fiat money into the digital asset industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its chairman Gary Gensler are trying to make crypto a taboo topic among bankers, according to the billionaire. The regulator is putting pressure on banks that want to engage in digital asset cooperation. Novogratz continues.

“It’s a ‘tax’ that Gensler and co are putting on our industry, trying to force banks not to serve people. You know it’s real. We are smart enough or lucky enough to have many partners among banks, but many of our portfolio companies we help and many of our peers can’t access banking services either.

Novogratz also believes that regulators have far more important concerns than cryptocurrencies. For example, the national debt ceiling and rising inflation. But instead, the US Securities and Exchange Commission is focusing only on crypto, while requesting additional funding because of their own “efforts”.

They should be worried about other things, but you’d think crypto was the only thing on their minds. You know, Gensler recently asked for more money to fight fraudsters in the crypto industry. We have a wave of rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, so we need to regulate it and do less with cryptocurrencies.

Asked by reporters whether the government’s actions were a result of concerns about the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, Novogratz responded as follows

There is something to this. Elizabeth Warren hates cryptocurrencies for some odd reason, and she carries a lot of weight in the finance department of the Biden administration. But if Yellen and Lael Brainard are opposed to cryptocurrencies, that means the point goes much deeper.

Elizabeth Warren is a senator from Massachusetts who has long been a critic of Bitcoin. She has repeatedly called for an outright ban on digital asset transactions in the US in the past, and the day before she even launched a re-run of her Senate campaign with the slogan “Warren is raising an army against cryptocurrencies”.

In the interview, Mike Novogratz touched on the topic of a bet involving former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. Recall that earlier he bet two million dollars that the price of BTC will rise to the level of $1 million in just 90 days. Such a prediction can become a reality only in one case – if the U.S. dollar loses its value sharply during the crisis.

According to Novogratz, this is an unfavourable scenario. He would like to see such an impressive bullrun, but over a longer period of time – 5 to 10 years. And we agree with his view – in that case Bitcoin’s growth will fit seamlessly into the acceptance of the crypto market, well people won’t become victims of a massive financial crisis.


We believe that the activity of US regulators this year does resemble a deliberate attempt to create problems for the cryptocurrency industry. In particular, blockchain developers are not comfortable operating out of the US right now, because they could get caught in the crosshairs of various Commissions at any moment and be forced to pay fines. And since regulators have filed several lawsuits in such a short period of time, it gives the impression of a pre-planned campaign against digital assets. Here's hoping that giants like Coinbase can take the time to court and prove their case at the same time.


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