Billionaire Bill Ackman discusses crypto-currency regulation and says the industry must police itself or risk being shut down

Billionaire Bill Ackman has warned that the crypto industry must police itself or risk being shut down. He added that regulators need more resources to police bad actors in the crypto space and that it will likely take years to catch up.

Bill Ackman discusses the regulation of crypto-currencies and the need for the industry to police itself.

Billionaire Bill Ackman shared his thoughts on a variety of crypto-currency topics, including regulation, in a series of tweets Saturday.

Regulators need more resources to police the bad actors. Unfortunately, it will likely take years for the regulators to catch up, and they may never get there. The crypto industry therefore needs to self-police and out the bad actors, or it is at risk of being shut down.

– Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) November 26, 2022

Bill Ackman is the CEO and portfolio manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). His current net worth is approximately $3.5 billion.

Regarding the regulation of crypto-currencies, he said, “I’m not sure we need new rules. A lot of the fraud that’s going on is old pump-and-dump schemes, and custodians’ failures to protect customer assets.“

The executive continues: “I suspect that existing anti-fraud and other laws already govern these violations. We just need more enforcement“. Ackman opined:

Regulators need more resources to control bad actors. Unfortunately, it will probably take years for regulators to catch up, and they may never get there. So the crypto industry needs to police itself and weed out the bad actors or risk being shut down.

The collapse of FTX, a major crypto-currency exchange, earlier this month has prompted many to call for stricter regulation of crypto-currencies.

Some people have pointed out that FTX’s collapse is not a failure of crypto, including Mark Cuban and Robert Kiyosaki. U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer believes it is a failure of the SEC, Chairman Gary Gensler, FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and centralized finance.

Bill Ackman added: “Crypto is still the Wild West because the same protections as registered securities offerings don’t exist” :

Therefore, the character, reputation, and track record of the management teams and sponsors of crypto-currency-based companies are extremely important in choosing which projects to support.

Last week, the billionaire said, “Crypto is here to stay and with proper oversight and regulation, it has the potential to greatly benefit society and grow the global economy.“He added:”All legitimate participants in the crypto ecosystem should therefore have a strong incentive to expose and eliminate fraudulent actors, as they significantly increase the risk of regulatory intervention that will set back the potential positive impact of crypto for generations.“