The cryptocurrency industry will benefit more from US regulatory clarity than from President Donald Trump’s plan to create a national Bitcoin (BTC) reserve, several cryptocurrency executives told Cointelegraph. 

Trump’s March 6 executive order creating a US strategic Bitcoin reserve and a separate digital asset stockpile for altcoins left crypto industry executives underwhelmed. 

Meanwhile, they are still waiting for the White House to provide detailed guidance on issues like securities regulation and taxation, the executives said. 

“Markets expect a roadmap for innovation and clear guidelines on stablecoins, institutional adoption and taxation,” Max Giammario, CEO of Web3 artificial intelligence startup Kindred, told Cointelegraph.

“Instead, the vague rhetoric and lack of immediate action only deepened uncertainty.”

Trump signed a crypto executive order on March 6. Source: Margo Martin

Related: Bitcoin reserve backlash signals unrealistic industry expectationsCampaign promises

In July, Trump promised to turn America into the “world’s crypto capital” and create a US Bitcoin reserve akin to the nation’s gold stockpile. 

Trump’s March 6 executive order delivered on his campaign promise but left traders disappointed. 

Instead of instructing the US government to buy crypto, the reserve and the stockpile will initially only comprise digital assets seized by law enforcement. 

Bitcoin is down approximately 13% from March 6 as traders react to the news amid a backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty. 

Altcoins have clocked similar losses, with the total crypto market capitalization shedding more than $400 million. 

Those losses could worsen without clearer US policy guidance soon, industry executives said.

“If Trump’s administration provides clearer regulations on stablecoins, ETFs and institutional adoption, altcoins could regain momentum,” Alvin Kan, chief operating officer of Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph.

“Otherwise, Bitcoin dominance may continue, as it remains the primary macro asset.”

Reasons for optimism

Even so, crypto industry executives remain optimistic, citing Trump’s pro-crypto rhetoric and his appointment of industry-friendly leaders to key US regulatory posts. 

“The future of US crypto policy under Trump […] remains to be seen,” Theodore Agranat, Gunzilla Games’ director of Web3, told Cointelegraph. 

“However, given the people in all the crucial positions, we should expect to see a stream of ongoing and positive initiatives and news for crypto in general and especially crypto projects in the US.”

Magazine: Legal issues surround the FBI’s creation of fake crypto tokens

Coinbase announced on March 10 that it plans to offer 24/7 trading for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) futures to US residents. The exchange is also launching perpetual futures trading with long-date expirations.

According to Coinbase, much of the current crypto derivatives market takes place outside of US borders, with American traders having to navigate fixed hours and expiring contracts, “which can create inefficiencies.”

Futures are a type of derivative that involves creating a contract to buy or sell an asset at a certain price and date. When the futures lack a date for the buying and selling of an asset, they are called perpetual futures, or “perpetuals” for short.

Regulatory uncertainty surrounding crypto perpetual futures has led many exchanges to disallow US residents from trading such products. In its announcement, Coinbase said it is working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for clarity. The agency oversees the trading of perpetuals for commodities to ensure these products “meet regulatory requirements.”

Related: US Bitcoin reserve ups volatility, futures recoil

The crypto derivatives market reached $1.3 trillion in monthly trading volume in September 2023, according to Alpha Point, significantly exceeding the spot crypto market. For centralized derivatives, non-US markets lead in trading volume.

Coinbase faces competition in US derivatives market

Coinbase’s new services face competition from various companies, including the CME Group, a US derivatives exchange with $6.1 billion in revenue in 2024. In the last quarter of 2024, the CME Group clocked an average daily trading volume of $10 billion for crypto derivatives. However, the derivatives are only available for trading six days a week.

In a February 2024 earnings call, Lynn Martin, CME’s chief financial officer, said crypto derivatives were among the “contracts that we saw the largest increases [in] this year.”

Coinbase may also face competition from rival Robinhood, which announced in January its own plans to offer Bitcoin and Ether futures. Coinbase already offers a crypto derivatives trading option for US residents on Coinbase Financial Markets.

Magazine: Opinion: Coinbase and Base: Is crypto just becoming traditional finance 2.0?

The Texas Senate passed the Bitcoin strategic reserve bill SB-21 on March 6. This followed a debate in which State Senator Charles Schwertner, who introduced the bill, argued that it would help Texas add a valuable and scarce asset to its balance sheet. 

Amid fears of Bitcoin (BTC) contending against the US dollar as a global reserve currency, Pro-Bitcoin lawmakers argued that Bitcoin was similar to gold and a hedge against inflation. 

If SB-21 is enacted, Texas will be the first state in the US to have a digital asset reserve. However, the governor must still sign the bill before it becomes law. 

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New York bill aims to protect crypto investors from memecoin rug pulls

New York lawmakers introduced a bill to protect crypto users from memecoin rug pulls, where insiders abandon a project after investors have purchased their token. These scams usually end up with token prices plummeting, causing millions in losses to crypto investors. 

On March 5, Assemblymember Clyde Vanel introduced the legislation to establish criminal penalties for offenses that involve “virtual token fraud.” This explicitly targets deceptive practices associated with crypto. 

Fideum co-founder and CEO Anastasija Plotnikova told Cointelegraph that scams and rug pulls should be more thoroughly regulated. “In my view, these activities should fall firmly within the jurisdiction of law enforcement agencies,” Plotnikova added.

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SEC’s Crypto Task Force to host roundtable on crypto security status

The Crypto Task Force of the US Securities and Exchange Commission will host a series of roundtables to discuss the “security status” of crypto assets, with the first set for March 21. 

Crypto Task Force lead Commissioner Hester Peirce said she is looking forward to “drawing the expertise of the public” to develop a workable framework for crypto. 

The roundtable series is called the “Spring Sprint Toward Crypto Clarity,” and the first topic of discussion is dubbed “How We Got Here and How We Get Out — Defining Security Status.” 

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Utah’s Senate passes Bitcoin bill — but scraps key provision

Utah lawmakers passed a Bitcoin bill after removing a section that would have allowed its state treasurer to invest in Bitcoin. While the HB230 bill passed the state Senate, it removed a key reserve clause that would’ve authorized the state treasurer to invest in digital assets with a market cap of over $500 billion.

The clause passed the second reading but was scrapped in the third and final reading. Still, the bill provides citizens basic custody protections, the right to mine, run a node and stake, among other things.   

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Argentine prosecutor aims to freeze assets in LIBRA memecoin fraud case

Argentine Federal Prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, the lead prosecutor investigating Argentine President Javier Milei’s alleged role in the LIBRA crypto scandal, requested the freezing of almost $110 million in digital assets related to the memecoin case. 

Taiano also requested the recovery of Milei’s deleted social posts and detailed records of all LIBRA transactions since its launch. The prosecutor aims to reconstruct the financial operations of Feb. 14 and 15, when the project’s trade volume peaked. 

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The X social media platform has been hit with a “massive cyberattack” that has prevented some users from accessing the site, platform owner Elon Musk confirmed on March 10.

“We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved,” Musk said.

Source: Elon Musk

Although user functionality was quickly restored, Musk implied that the attack was still ongoing.

At the time of writing, there were more than 33,000 reports of X outages on March 10, according to Downdetector.

Musk confirmed the cyberattack in response to a social media user who detailed a series of attacks against the entrepreneur’s interests, from protests against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to vandalism of Tesla stores.

As NBC News reported, there have been at least 10 acts of vandalism against Tesla stores and vehicles, likely in response to the billionaire entrepreneur’s involvement in the Trump White House.

Source: Elon Musk

Related: US Department of Government Efficiency slapped with more lawsuits

DOGE expands cost-cutting measures

Shortly after winning the November presidential election, Donald Trump appointed Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency with the mandate of reducing wasteful government spending. 

So far, Musk’s DOGE claims to have saved $105 billion in taxpayer dollars across 10,492 initiatives, according to a live tracker. 

DOGE reportedly has its sights set on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has even called on the public to provide examples of “waste, fraud and abuse” at the agency. 

Musk previously described the SEC as a “totally broken organization” that, instead of prosecuting real criminals, misallocates its resources on things that don’t matter.

With regard to crypto, the SEC’s mandate under President Trump has changed dramatically. 

According to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, “We should expect the SEC under the second Trump administration to scale back rulemakings adopted under the Biden administration and former Chair Gary Gensler that many viewed as increasing impediments to one of the SEC’s core missions of capital formation.”

Magazine: Legal issues surround the FBI’s creation of fake crypto tokens

Asset manager REX-Osprey is seeking to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to hold the Movement Network’s native token, MOVE, according to a March 10 announcement. 

The filing comes as Movement, a layer-2 (L2) blockchain network, launches its public mainnet beta, Movement said. 

It is the latest example of a fund sponsor filing to list an ETF comprising an alternative cryptocurrency, or “altcoin.” 

“Traditional investors have expressed keen interest in gaining regulated exposure to emerging blockchain technologies without directly managing tokens,” Cooper Scanlon, Movement Labs’ co-founder, said in a statement. 

Movement is an Ethereum L2 blockchain designed using Move, a Rust-based programming language originally developed by Meta. 

Its public mainnet has approximately $250 million in total value locked (TVL), according to Movement. 

The MOVE token has a fully diluted value of around $5 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission authorized ETFs holding Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) to list in the US in 2024 but has not yet approved any altcoin ETFs. 

“Breaking the pattern of ETFs limited to long-established cryptocurrencies opens doors for institutional capital to support next-generation blockchain innovation,” Rushi Manche, Movement Labs’ co-founder, said in a statement. 

REX-Osprey has filed for a MOVE ETF. Source: SEC

Related: Bitwise files to list a spot Aptos ETF — the 36th largest cryptocurrency

Altcoin ETFs abound

Asset managers are seeking the SEC’s approval to list ETFs for holding upward of half a dozen different altcoins.

On March 5, asset manager Bitwise filed to list a spot Aptos ETF in the US — a token created by a team led by two former Facebook (now Meta) employees in 2022.

On Feb. 25, US securities exchange Nasdaq requested to list a Grayscale ETF holding the Polkadot network’s native token, DOT (DOT). 

Other altcoin ETFs awaiting approval include those holding Litecoin (LTC), Solana (SOL) and Official Trump (TRUMP), among others. 

US President Donald Trump, who started his second term in January, said he wants America to become the “world’s crypto capital” and has appointed pro-crypto leaders to key regulatory agencies, including the SEC.

Bloomberg Intelligence has set the odds of the SEC approving Solana and Litecoin ETFs at 70% and 90%, respectively. 

Magazine: Meet lawyer Max Burwick — ‘The ambulance chaser of crypto’

Mark Carney, a Canadian economist and now Prime Minister-designate, is already under the microscope for his previous remarks regarding cryptocurrency. 

Carney, who replaced former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, took a measured and critical approach to cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin (BTC), in a 2018 speech he made at the Bank of England. He also shared concerns over private stablecoins and supported the idea of a central bank currency (CBDC) — a concept many crypto purists regard as antithetical to cryptocurrencies.

At the same time, Carney has said in his platform for the upcoming 2025 federal elections that he wants to make Canada a leader in emerging technologies, including “AI, tech, and digital industries.”

Carney’s previous statements, along with the US trade war on its former trading partners, have raised questions over the Prime Minister-designate’s economic platform and what part, if any, crypto will play.

Bitcoin a “poor store of value”

While serving as governor of the Bank of England, Carney criticized the seminal cryptocurrency Bitcoin as being insufficient in fulfilling all three of the functions of a currency: a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account. 

Functions of money. Source: Bank of England

Addressing the question “How well do cryptocurrencies fulfill the roles of money?” he said, “The long, charitable answer is that cryptocurrencies act as money, at best, only for some people and to a limited extent, and even then only in parallel with the traditional currencies of the users.”

“The short answer is they are failing.”

He also shared his concern over private stablecoins in the 2021 Andrew Crockett Memorial lecture. Carney stated that private stablecoins need a regulatory model with “equivalent protections to those for commercial bank money,” like liquidity requirements, central bank eligibility and means to compensate depositors. 

He also stated that a system that contains multiple competing stablecoins can “fragment the liquidity of the monetary system and to detract from the role of money as a coordination device.”

Carney contended that a central bank digital currency (CBDC), particularly a retail CBDC with API access to regulated, private firms — could prevent such fragmentation from happening, in addition to more common pro-CBDC arguments like expedited settlement times. 

Carney calls for crypto regulation, not to stifle innovation 

In a Bloomberg interview in 2018, Carney said that he wanted to bring the cryptocurrency space up to standard with the rest of the financial industry. He said at the time that there was “lots of temptation” for market manipulation, fraud and other misconduct on crypto exchanges. 

“The best of the cryptocurrencies, I would suggest, will gravitate to the best of the exchanges if they’re regulated,” he said.

Related: National Bank of Canada hints at bearish take on Bitcoin

Carney further claimed that it’s a good thing if some cryptocurrencies “fall by the wayside” with regulation. “It is a privilege to be part of the financial system, to be connected to the financial system. And responsibilities come with those privileges,” he said.

Despite his more skeptical comments toward cryptocurrencies, Carney said in his 2018 speech that policymakers should be careful not to stifle innovation. 

He said that the “underlying technologies are exciting” and that lawmakers shouldn’t restrain solutions that can “improve financial stability; support more innovative, efficient and reliable payment services as well as have wider applications.”

Carney is also supportive of implementing other emerging technologies in government administration and making Canada more competitive in tech. His platform aims to reduce inefficiencies with AI and machine learning and “build a highly competitive, technology-enabled public service.”

Canada election looms against pro-crypto candidate

The Canadian federal elections are slated to happen no later than Oct. 20, 2025, and could be called even earlier.

Carney will face Conservative frontrunner Pierre Poilievre, who himself has made a number of pro-crypto statements. In 2022, he posted on X that he wanted to make Canada a blockchain hub and “expand choice, lower costs of financial products, [and] create thousands of jobs.”

During the Conservative Party’s leadership election, he said that cryptocurrencies would let Canadians “take control” of their money.

Related: Why Pierre Poilievre may not be Canada’s crypto savior

Still, observers of the Canadian crypto industry and Canadian politics have told Cointelegraph that crypto is unlikely to be a major factor in the upcoming elections, unlike its neighbor to the south.

Morva Rohani, executive director of the Canadian Web3 Council nonprofit trade association, told Cointelegraph, “The reality is that most Canadians are either indifferent or skeptical about crypto, and larger issues like the affordability crisis, housing, inflation and immigration dominate the political conversation.”

Added to those economic concerns is the trade war with the US, which started when President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China — three of his country’s major trading partners. 

Trudeau’s response to Trump’s tariff threats has seen the Liberals close their gap in the polls, which earlier this year showed the Conservatives as decisively ahead. Carney’s response to the US’ hostile economic policies may be more of a key factor to victory than his stance on cryptocurrencies. 

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Mark Carney, a Canadian economist and now Prime Minister-designate, is already under the microscope for his previous remarks regarding cryptocurrency. 

Carney, who replaced former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, took a measured and critical approach to cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin (BTC), in a 2018 speech he made at the Bank of England. He also shared concerns over private stablecoins and supported the idea of a central bank currency (CBDC) — a concept many crypto purists regard as antithetical to cryptocurrencies.

At the same time, Carney has said in his platform for the upcoming 2025 federal elections that he wants to make Canada a leader in emerging technologies, including “AI, tech, and digital industries.”

Carney’s previous statements, along with the US trade war on its former trading partners, have raised questions over the Prime Minister-designate’s economic platform and what part, if any, crypto will play.

Bitcoin a “poor store of value”

While serving as governor of the Bank of England, Carney criticized the seminal cryptocurrency Bitcoin as being insufficient in fulfilling all three of the functions of a currency: a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account. 

Functions of money. Source: Bank of England

Addressing the question “How well do cryptocurrencies fulfill the roles of money?” he said, “The long, charitable answer is that cryptocurrencies act as money, at best, only for some people and to a limited extent, and even then only in parallel with the traditional currencies of the users.”

“The short answer is they are failing.”

He also shared his concern over private stablecoins in the 2021 Andrew Crockett Memorial lecture. Carney stated that private stablecoins need a regulatory model with “equivalent protections to those for commercial bank money,” like liquidity requirements, central bank eligibility and means to compensate depositors. 

He also stated that a system that contains multiple competing stablecoins can “fragment the liquidity of the monetary system and to detract from the role of money as a coordination device.”

Carney contended that a central bank digital currency (CBDC), particularly a retail CBDC with API access to regulated, private firms — could prevent such fragmentation from happening, in addition to more common pro-CBDC arguments like expedited settlement times. 

Carney calls for crypto regulation, not to stifle innovation 

In a Bloomberg interview in 2018, Carney said that he wanted to bring the cryptocurrency space up to standard with the rest of the financial industry. He said at the time that there was “lots of temptation” for market manipulation, fraud and other misconduct on crypto exchanges. 

“The best of the cryptocurrencies, I would suggest, will gravitate to the best of the exchanges if they’re regulated,” he said.

Related: National Bank of Canada hints at bearish take on Bitcoin

Carney further claimed that it’s a good thing if some cryptocurrencies “fall by the wayside” with regulation. “It is a privilege to be part of the financial system, to be connected to the financial system. And responsibilities come with those privileges,” he said.

Despite his more skeptical comments toward cryptocurrencies, Carney said in his 2018 speech that policymakers should be careful not to stifle innovation. 

He said that the “underlying technologies are exciting” and that lawmakers shouldn’t restrain solutions that can “improve financial stability; support more innovative, efficient and reliable payment services as well as have wider applications.”

Carney is also supportive of implementing other emerging technologies in government administration and making Canada more competitive in tech. His platform aims to reduce inefficiencies with AI and machine learning and “build a highly competitive, technology-enabled public service.”

Canada election looms against pro-crypto candidate

The Canadian federal elections are slated to happen no later than Oct. 20, 2025, and could be called even earlier.

Carney will face Conservative frontrunner Pierre Poilievre, who himself has made a number of pro-crypto statements. In 2022, he posted on X that he wanted to make Canada a blockchain hub and “expand choice, lower costs of financial products, [and] create thousands of jobs.”

During the Conservative Party’s leadership election, he said that cryptocurrencies would let Canadians “take control” of their money.

Related: Why Pierre Poilievre may not be Canada’s crypto savior

Still, observers of the Canadian crypto industry and Canadian politics have told Cointelegraph that crypto is unlikely to be a major factor in the upcoming elections, unlike its neighbor to the south.

Morva Rohani, executive director of the Canadian Web3 Council nonprofit trade association, told Cointelegraph, “The reality is that most Canadians are either indifferent or skeptical about crypto, and larger issues like the affordability crisis, housing, inflation and immigration dominate the political conversation.”

Added to those economic concerns is the trade war with the US, which started when President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China — three of his country’s major trading partners. 

Trudeau’s response to Trump’s tariff threats has seen the Liberals close their gap in the polls, which earlier this year showed the Conservatives as decisively ahead. Carney’s response to the US’ hostile economic policies may be more of a key factor to victory than his stance on cryptocurrencies. 

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Bitcoin miner CleanSpark will join an important benchmark for US small-cap stocks, underscoring the company’s recent string of profitability despite industry volatility following the April 2024 halving. 

Beginning March 24, CleanSpark’s stock will be included in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index. As the name implies, the index measures the performance of small US companies that meet specific liquidity and stability criteria. 

As of March 2025, the index’s constituents must have a market capitalization of between $1.1 billion and $7.4 billion, maintain a public float of at least 10% of shares outstanding, and have positive trailing earnings for four consecutive quarters. 

CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford said the company’s inclusion in the small-cap index demonstrates “the value of being a pure play, vertically integrated Bitcoin mining company,” which makes “exposure to our model more broadly available.”

Source: CleanSpark

CleanSpark’s profits surged to $241.7 million, or $0.85 per share, in the final quarter of 2024, up from just $25.9 million a year earlier. Company-wide revenues jumped 120% on a year-over-year basis to $162.3 million.

In February, the company further bolstered its Bitcoin (BTC) stockpile by 6% and now holds 11,177 BTC on its books. Only four other publicly traded companies own more Bitcoin.

Related: Monthly Bitcoin production drops as miners fight rising hashrate

BTC miners under pressure

Bitcoin miners have seen their revenues decline since the April 2024 halving event, forcing several industry players to diversify their business models. Several are pivoting toward artificial intelligence data centers, which can generate higher revenue than traditional mining. 

In September, Hive Digital executives Frank Holmes and Aydin Kilic told Cointelegraph that repurposing Nvidia GPUs for AI tasks could generate up to $2.50 per hour in revenues, up from just 0.$12 per hour for crypto mining.

For this reason, “institutions are much more interested in us with our AI than Bitcoin,” Holmes said.

Bitcoin miners are increasingly turning toward AI applications to boost revenues. Source: VanEck

Other mining companies are turning to mergers and acquisitions to reduce mining costs and increase hashrate, according to an August report by JPMorgan. The Wall Street bank singled out companies like Riot Platforms and CleanSaprk for increasing their M&A activity in the post-halving environment. 

Meanwhile, “Capital-constrained miners like IREN and [Cipher] focused on securing greenfield opportunities, which require less immediate capital,” JPMorgan said.

Magazine: How Chinese traders and miners get around China’s crypto ban

The Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC) for cryptocurrency trades, allowing the stablecoins to be listed on regulated exchanges across the country.

Thailand’s SEC announced the approvals last week after soliciting feedback from the public on proposed regulatory changes that were finalized in February and scheduled to go into effect on March 16.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, there have been growing calls within Thailand to legitimize cryptocurrency usage and urge stablecoin adoption to boost domestic revenue. This followed the creation of a regulatory sandbox in August 2024 for select service providers to experiment with cryptocurrencies.

The stablecoins join only five other cryptocurrencies that are approved for trading in the country: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), Stellar Lumen (XLM) and cryptocurrencies that are being tested for settlement by the Bank of Thailand. 

According to a March 10 announcement by Tether, the approval allows USDt to be adopted by digital asset businesses and be used as a payment rail within the country. 

Related: Thailand eyes spot Bitcoin ETF approval, cracks down on Polymarket

Stablecoin adoption on the rise

In addition to facilitating cryptocurrency trades, stablecoins are increasingly viewed as an alternative to traditional remittances, especially in emerging markets. 

A December report by Chainalysis called stablecoins a “transformative” use case for cross-border payments and remittances. In emerging markets across Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, using stablecoins for remittances is 60% cheaper than traditional methods.

According to venture capital firm a16z Crypto, 28.5 million unique stablecoin users sent over 600 million transactions in December alone. This still represents a tiny faction of the 3.4 trillion transactions of the global payments industry. 

Stablecoin transfers are significantly cheaper and faster than traditional payment methods. Source: a16z Crypto

In terms of circulating supply, stablecoins are currently worth nearly $230 billion, according to DefiLlama. Tether’s USDt accounts for just over 63% of the total market. 

Magazine: Ethereum L2s will be interoperable ‘within months’ — Complete guide

Opinion by: Merav Ozair, PhD

Technology is advancing at the speed of light today more than ever. We have surpassed Moore’s law — computational power is doubling every six months rather than every two years — while regulations are, and have been, playing catchup.

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act just came into force in August 2024 and is already falling behind. It did not consider AI agents and is still wrestling with generative AI (GenAI) and foundation models. Article 28b was added to the act in June 2023 after the launch of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 and the flourishing of chatbot deployments. It was not on their radar when lawmakers initially drafted the act in April 2021.

As we move more into robotics and the use of virtual reality devices, a “new paradigm of AI architectures” will be developed, addressing the limitations of GenAI to create robots and virtual devices that can reason the world, unlike GenAI models. Maybe spending time drafting a new article on GenAI was not time well spent.

Furthermore, technology regulations are quite dichotomized. There are regulations on AI, like the EU AI Act; Web3, like Markets in Crypto-Assets; and the security of digital information, like the EU Cybersecurity Act and The Digital Operational Resilience Act.

This dichotomy is cumbersome for users and businesses to follow. Moreover, it does not align with how solutions and products are developed. Every solution integrates many technologies, while each technology component has separate regulations.

It might be time to reconsider the way we regulate technology.

A comprehensive approach

Tech companies have been pushing the boundaries with cutting-edge technologies, including Web3, AI, quantum computing and others yet to emerge. Other industries are following suit in the experimentation and implementation of these technologies. 

Everything is digital, and every product integrates several technologies. Think of the Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest. They have hardware, goggles, AI, biometric technology, cloud computing, cryptography, digital wallets and more, and they will soon be integrated with Web3 technology.

A comprehensive approach to regulation would be the most suitable approach for the following principal reasons.

A full-system solution

Most, if not all, solutions require the integration of several emerging technologies. If we have separate guidelines and regulations for each technology, how could we ensure the product/service is compliant? Where does one rule start and the other end? 

Recent: Animoca Brands revenue climbs as AI cuts costs by 12%

Separate guidelines would probably introduce more complexity, errors and misinterpretations, which eventually might result in more harm than good. If the implementation of technologies is all-encompassing and comprehensive, the approach to regulating it should also be.

Different technologies support each other’s weaknesses

All technologies have strengths and weaknesses, and often, the strengths of one technology can support the shortcomings of the other.

For example, AI can support Web3 by enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of smart contract execution and blockchain security and monitoring. In contrast, blockchain technology can assist in manifesting “responsible AI,” as blockchain is everything that AI is not — transparent, traceable, trustworthy and tamper-free.

When AI supports Web3 and vice versa, we implement a comprehensive, safe, secure and trustworthy solution. Would these solutions be AI-compliant or Web3-compliant? With this solution, it would be challenging to dichotomize compliance. The solution should be compliant and adhere to all guidelines/policies. It would be best if these guidelines/policies encompass all technologies, including their integration.

A proactive approach

We need proactive regulation. Many of the regulation proposals, across all regions, seem to be reactions to changes we know about today and don’t go far enough in thinking about how to provide frameworks for what might come five or 10 years down the line. 

If, for example, we already know that there will be a “new paradigm of AI architectures,” probably in the next five years, then why not start thinking today, not in 5 years, how to regulate it? Or better yet, find a regulatory framework that would apply no matter how technology evolves.

Think about responsible innovation. Responsible innovation, simplistically, means making new technologies work for society without causing more problems than they solve. In other words: “Do good, do no harm.”

Responsible innovation

Responsible innovation principles are designed to span all technologies, not just AI. These principles recognize that all technologies can have unintended consequences on users, bystanders and society, and that it is the responsibility of the companies and developers creating those technologies to identify and mitigate those risks.

Responsible innovation principles are overarching and international and apply to any technology that exists today and will evolve in the future. This could be the basis for technology regulation. Still, companies, regardless of regulation, should understand that innovating responsibly instills trust in users, which will translate to mainstream adoption.

Truth in Technology Act

The Securities Act of 1933, also known as the “truth in securities” law, was created to protect investors from fraud and misrepresentation and restore public confidence in the stock market as a response to the stock market crash of 1929. 

At the core of the act lie honesty and transparency, the essential ingredients to instill public trust in the stock market, or in anything for that matter. 

This act has withstood the test of time — an “evergreen” law. Securities trading and the financial industry have become more digital and more technological, but the core principles of this act still apply and will continue to.

 Based on the principles of responsible innovation, we could design a “Truth in Technology Act,” which would instill public trust in technology, internationally, now and in the future. Fundamentally, we seek these products and services to be safe, secure, ethical, privacy-preserving, accurate, easy to understand, auditable, transparent and accountable. These values are international across regions, industries and technologies, and since technology knows no boundaries, neither should regulations.

Innovation may create value, but it may also extract or destroy it. Regulation helps limit the latter two types of innovation, while well-designed regulation may enable the first kind to survive and flourish. A global collaboration may find ways to incentivize innovation that creates value for the good of the global economy and society.

It might be time for a Truth in Technology Act — an international, comprehensive, evergreen regulation for the good of the citizens of the world.

Opinion by: Merav Ozair, PhD.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.