Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency with the largest market capitalization, has added more than 160 per cent in 2023, with smaller projects surging in response, as the crypto industry enjoys its latest bull run and readies for the next stage in its maturation as an asset class.
The first sign that crypto is evolving from the Wild West towards financial legitimacy is the systematic removal of bad actors. High-profile examples concern two recent criminal convictions: that of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX crypto exchange, who misused billions in customer funds, and that of Changpeng Zhao (aka CZ), a co-founder and former CEO of the Binance exchange, who violated U.S. anti-money laundering laws. Such a high level of regulatory involvement can be seen as a cleansing of the playing field, leaving a clearer path for innovators to propel crypto into more long-term use cases, which we’ll discuss later on.
The second…
