The founder of the Waves blockchain believes that regulation is needed to deal with market manipulation in the crypto space.
Sasha Ivanov, founder and CEO of the Waves smart contract blockchain, told Bein Crypto in a recent interview that the cryptocurrency market needs regulation. According to Ivanov, regulation would deal with manipulations in the market.
The Waves CEO had a public spat with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried regarding market manipulation. When asked about it, Ivanov said;
“Crypto market manipulation is a sign of the times; as much as we in the space wish it wasn’t so, it’s there nonetheless. People with large balances and high levels of intelligence are able to profit at the expense of retail traders. Our resolution is regulation, which is on its way. In the meantime, we have been working on our own solutions, such as the upcoming launch of PowerDAO to help us regulate our own ecosystem.”
The crypto market remains largely unregulated at this point, and Ivanov said the situation needs to change. He said;
“While this may not be the most popular opinion, I believe we need regulation to protect users. As such, we are absolutely in favor of finding some real and efficient solutions through intelligent conversations with regulators. That being said, we need to respect the values of immutability, resistance to censorship, and decentralization when regulating – there has to be some agreement here otherwise, the core values of crypto will be compromised.”
Despite the calls for regulation, Ivanov doesn’t think that the government should implement blanket bans on some crypto projects, similar to what they did with Tornado Cash. Ivanov said;
“Blanket bans on accounts linked to Tornado Cash and arresting developers for creating code that is used for illegal means is totally ludicrous. Imagine jailing the inventor of a knife for crimes committed with it! Ridiculous that this is where they’ve gone with enforcement actions. There needs to be an informed discussion around what blockchain technology is before knee-jerk enforcement actions like this are made. We’re happy to talk with regulators at any time about how to do this sensibly while respecting the values of the people in the space.”
Regulators in various parts of the world continue to work on regulating the broader crypto market. However, there is no unified cryptocurrency regulation at this point.