\n<\/p>\n
Many Americans were already disappointed in cryptocurrency before prices tanked this year and several high-profile companies failed. A Pew Research poll<\/a> in July found that at the time, about one-in-six Americans had invested in or traded cryptocurrency. But nearly half of those investors say that results were worse than expected.<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried\u2019s downfall <\/b>hit crypto confidence even <\/b>harder. <\/b>Cryptocurrency investors big and small have already pulled out billions of dollars<\/a>. The cryptocurrency market, which floundered when FTX declared bankruptcy in November, continues to contend with wild price swings and lower values.<\/p>\n One bitcoin, a unit of the world\u2019s most popular cryptocurrency, was worth nearly $50,000 in January. As of Friday, one bitcoin was worth less than $17,000.<\/a> Other cryptocurrencies have seen similar drops, with Ether and Binance Coin both shedding more than half their value since January.<\/p>\n Still, many of Georgia\u2019s ever-growing<\/a> cryptocurrency businesses and miners see opportunity in the fallout.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a wildly positive event in the long term,\u201d said S. Matthew Schultz, executive chairman of CleanSpark.<\/p>\n Cryptocurrency<\/a> is digital currency created and traded online. Unlike traditional money, it isn\u2019t backed by a government or bank. There are many kinds of cryptocurrency, but the most popular are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether. Cryptocurrency isn\u2019t printed, but instead \u2018mined\u2019 \u2014 a process where specialized computers solve puzzles to release new coins and verify transactions in a code called the blockchain. Since cryptocurrency\u2019s inception in 2008, its market value now hovers around $1 trillion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n CleanSpark is a Nevada-based Bitcoin mining company with four mining facilities in Georgia. Bitcoin has advantages that other cryptocurrencies may not, Schultz said. It\u2019s decentralized, meaning that it isn\u2019t controlled by one party. Every transaction is also publicly recorded and observable in the blockchain code, discouraging fraud, he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, FTX was centralized, controlling cryptocurrencies like FTT.<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried\u2019s fall is part of cutting out the \u201cconfusion and clutter\u201d of cryptocurrency, Schultz said. He hopes it will highlight the benefits of Bitcoin to consumers and investors.<\/p>\n \u201cI was at a conference, and somebody compared the FTT token to the briefcase full of IOUs on the movie \u2018Dumb and Dumber,\u2019\u201d Schultz said. \u201cIt\u2019s a massive win to get rid of people like [Bankman-Fried].\u201d<\/p>\n In October 2021, the Department of Justice announced<\/a> its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which investigates criminal cryptocurrency use. Then in February, the department reported<\/a> that the founders of BitMEX, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, would pay $20 million for purposefully avoiding to establish an anti-money laundering program. Two days later, cryptocurrency lending company BlockFi agreed to pay $100 million in penalties after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the platform<\/a> with falling to register offers and sales.<\/p>\n Other companies have filed for bankruptcy, unable to handle market pressure. Cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital fell in June after two cryptocurrencies, Luna and TerraUSD, collapsed. A month later, cryptocurrency broker Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy. So did cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network.<\/p>\n These events and more are part of a greater pattern of cryptocurrency culling, said Dan O\u2019Prey, chief product officer of Bitcoin and crypto at Bakkt. Bakkt is an Alpharetta-based company that offers an app to manage digital assets like cryptocurrency \u2014 and it\u2019s also one of the companies shaken by the fallout.<\/p>\n Bakkt shares were trading at $1.42 on Friday, down from a yearly high of $7.29 in February. The company reported a $1.5 billion net loss in the third quarter, and Intercontinental Exchange, which founded the company, recently wrote off $1.1 billion of its Bakkt holdings. Bakkt announced<\/a> this month that it would lay off 15% of its employees.<\/p>\n Still, the market has a \u201cshort-term memory\u201d and interest in cryptocurrency will return, O\u2019Prey said. A Bakkt poll<\/a> published on <\/b>Dec. 13 \u2014 conducted before Bankman-Fried\u2019s arrest but after FTX\u2019s bankruptcy \u2014 <\/b>found that only half of cryptocurrency users recalled any recent crypto market news. For the \u201ccrypto curious,\u201d <\/b>or people interested in trading, <\/b>that figure fell to one-third.<\/p>\n \u201c[Bankman-Fried\u2019s fall] is a good opportunity for those entities that are well-run to step in, for the adults in the room to come and fill the gap,\u201d O\u2019Prey said.<\/p>\n What remains uncertain is how cryptocurrency regulations might unfold.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced a bipartisan bill to <\/b>reduce <\/b>cryptocurrency crime. Among other things, the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act<\/a> would allow the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to designate cryptocurrency companies as \u201cmoney service businesses,\u201d putting them under Bank Secrecy Act regulations. It also cracks down on anonymity, prohibiting financial institutions from touching cryptocurrency that has been \u201cmixed,\u201d hiding transaction parties.<\/p>\n Credit: HYOSUB SHIN \/ AJC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Credit: HYOSUB SHIN \/ AJC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n O\u2019Prey said he welcomes \u201cthoughtful\u201d regulations for centralized cryptocurrency platforms. Schultz with CleanSpark argues that regulation is essential to Bitcoin\u2019s growth, adding safety that will draw consumers. Part of this process may even include taxation, he said.<\/p>\n But not all crypto users support regulation.<\/p>\n Richard Clarke, an independent cryptocurrency consultant and organizer of the Bitcoin Atlanta Meetup, has participated in cryptocurrency mining and trading for 10 years. He was first drawn to the currency because of the freedom that comes from its detachment to traditional bodies like banks or government \u2014 but regulations would end that, he said.<\/p>\n \u201c[Regulators] come in after the rampage, count the bodies, string someone up, say, \u2018Oh, we got him!\u2019 And then they expand their authority,\u201d Clarke said. \u201cAll regulation really serves to do is to stifle competition.\u201d<\/p>\n Robert Daniel, a financial tech adviser with the Georgia Institute of Technology\u2019s Advanced Technology Development Center, understands regulation hesitancy. Certain kinds of crime like fraud have always been punishable, but other cryptocurrency activities remain in an undefined legal haze.<\/p>\n Good regulations are those that let assets flow as uninterrupted as possible while still protecting traders, Daniel said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still been kind of the Wild West,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Cryptocurrency<\/a> is digital currency created and traded online. Unlike traditional money, it isn\u2019t backed by a government or bank. There are many kinds of cryptocurrency, but the most popular are Bitcoin, Ether and Tether. Cryptocurrency isn\u2019t printed, but instead \u2018mined\u2019 \u2014 a process where specialized computers solve puzzles to release new coins and verify transactions in a code called the blockchain. Since cryptocurrency\u2019s inception in 2008, its market value now hovers around $1 trillion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u2018Wild West\u2019<\/h3>\n
\nWhat is cryptocurrency?<\/h3>\n