Regulation and the Crypto Bahamas Conference
The SALT/FTX conference and recent regulatory announcements in the Bahamas is the beginning of an exciting DeFi journey in the Caribbean nation.
The Crypto Bahamas Conference
The Crypto Bahamas Conference took place the last week of April with over 2,000 attendees and an impressive list of panelists that highlights how far the crypto space has evolved in the past 10 years. One of the panels at the conference featured former President, Bill Clinton, and former Prime Minister of the UK, Tony Blair — a stark contrast compared to some of the early Bitcoin gatherings where the enthusiasts were more focused on staying away from the regulators than having former world leaders speak. The event was hosted by Skybridge Capital’s SALT and FTX. SALT is a global thought leadership and networking forum led by chairman of SALT and founder of SkyBridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci, and FTX is a crypto derivative marketplace headed by CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. The conference coincided with the announcement by FTX of the official groundbreaking for FTX’s new headquarters in Bahamas’ capital of Nassau – FTX announced its departure from their previous headquarters in Hong Kong last year.
With crypto regulation still a work in progress in much of the developed world, we are seeing efforts by a number of countries to recruit crypto companies with the hopes of attracting jobs and investments. Much like Bermuda’s efforts to offer the global re-insurance a jurisdiction with favorable tax and regulation giving the Island a leading edge in re-insurance, we are seeing places like the Bahamas courting key players in the crypto space with hopes of building this into a key offering in their economy.
Regulation was a hot topic at the conference with regulators from different countries sending representatives (including US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Bill Hagerty, former CFTC heads Christ Giancarlo and Mark Wetjen), discussing their thoughts on the crypto regulatory landscape.
We believe this is a positive step towards defi and crypto becoming mainstream. For the crypto industry to thrive, regulators must give clear and consistent direction to the crypto industry. Similarly, the public needs to be aware of the risks of investing in this space and collectively the regulators will need to find solutions that work for both the industry and the customers. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of FTX, has said he spends over 50% of his time thinking about crypto regulation.
As Raymound Yuan, founder of CTH group put it, traditional financial firms don’t want to be the first one, but they also don’t want to be the last one. This is precisely one of the issues we aim to solve at Grantfin: bridging traditional finance with defi in a way that is both compliant with regulations, but also allows for regulated investors to access the value of defi.
The Bahamas and Where it Stands on Crypto
The Bahamas has long been known as a nation with favorable tax and regulatory frameworks. To solidify this point, the conference coincided with the publishing of a policy white paper from the Bahama’s Office of the Prime Minister titled, “The Future of Digital Assets in the Bahamas.” (here)
The entire four-year plan aims to outline the island’s commitment in making the Bahamas a hub for crypto and DeFi, including investing in education and encouraging partnerships with companies to set up shop on the island. As an added bonus, the Bahamas hopes to see this returned in way of a more competitive real estate market, increased travel to the island (it’s main GDP contributor), and local jobs.
This is not new for the Bahamas, who in 2020 released their own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the Sand Dollar. In PWC’s 2021 report on the top 10 CBDC developments, the Sand Dollar was the most advanced project globally. The Sand Dollar is identical in legal status to the Bahamas Dollar and citizens can use it to pay taxes.
Just a week after FTX broke ground on their headquarters in the Bahamas, Binance, another global crypto firm, disclosed they were setting up their European Headquarters in France. As the race to attract players in this new industry picks up speed, we could see regulators speed up their focus to deliver clear rules that allows crypto to join the regulated world.
