Mike Novogratz Laments US Government's Penchant for Discussing Crypto While Saying 'Nothing About AI Regulation'

Galaxy Digital Holdings chief executive Mike Novogratz has said he finds it shocking that U.S. authorities are interested in talking about the regulation of crypto, but have said nothing about artificial intelligence (AI) regulation. Novogratz added that by choosing mainly to focus on crypto regulation, the U.S. government has it “completely upside-down.”

‘A Real Technology That People Care About’

Crypto billionaire and Galaxy Digital Holdings CEO, Mike Novogratz, recently said he finds it shocking that regulators only seem to be interested in “talking so much about crypto regulation and nothing about AI [artificial intelligence] regulation.” Novogratz also suggested that it would “be dumb” for the government to “cache this industry because of Sam Bankman-Fried in his Bermuda shorts.”

Speaking at Galaxy Digital’s Fourth Quarter (Q4) 2022 Shareholder Update Conference Call, Novogratz, who has previously slammed Sam Bankman-Fried, insisted that he is not against any move that weeds out bad actors from the space. The CEO, however, said he is not a fan of U.S. regulators’ approach which he said is akin to “throwing the baby out with the bath water.”

According to Novogratz, crypto has emerged as an important way of preserving value in a world where fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar are continuously getting debased.

“Like, this is a real technology that people care about. This is the real alternative to a way to save money in a world where it feels like the dollar will be debased, or all Fiat will be debased. The real way of monetizing IP in the NFT [non-fungible token] space, and lots of other — this isn’t tulips in sixteenth-century Holland. This is a real technological breakthrough,” Novogratz argued.

The CEO added that by choosing to focus on crypto while doing nothing about AI, the U.S. government “got it completely upside-down.”

Gary Gensler’s Vacillations

Meanwhile, when asked about what he sees as his main problem with what has been described as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pushback, Novogratz responded by pointing to the regulators and SEC chair Gary Gensler’s vacillations when it comes to what constitutes a security and what does not. The CEO also appeared to blame the SEC’s inability to clearly name or highlight the attributes that make a crypto asset a security for causing the impasse that now exists between industry players and regulators.

Concerning what needs to be done to make the industry go forward, Novogratz said:

You need really smart people thinking about how do you take this new industry, create a set of rules that allows legitimate players to forge this industry in the U.S. and grow it.

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Terence Zimwara

Terence Zimwara is a Zimbabwe award-winning journalist, author and writer. He has written extensively about the economic troubles of some African countries as well as how digital currencies can provide Africans with an escape route.