Chris Curl,
Editor
May 13, 2022
Everyone in Los Angeles is now familiar with the Crypto.com arena.
The 20,000 seat multi-purpose facility hosts the NBA Lakers and Clippers franchises as well as the NHL Kings to name but a few tenants.
Opened in 1999 as the Staples Arena, it was the home of many famous concerts and sporting events. Office supply company Staples had held the naming rights to the facility for its entire existence.
Until November 2021, when Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com purchased the naming rights. This 20-year, $700 million deal came as a surprise to many and cemented cryptocurrency as a mainstay in mainstream finance for the foreseeable future.
California has a long history of technical innovation. As the birthplace of garage startups like Hewlett-Packard and Apple, as well as the home of Google and virtually all social media platforms, it’s seen by many as the mecca of the tech elite.
And many of those people have been betting on crypto for the last decade.
In fact, of the roughly 800 blockchain businesses in North America, one fourth of them are in California. That is much higher than any other state.
And given California’s questionable economic policies over the last couple decades, they’d be foolish not to incentivize growth in this burgeoning industry. Fortunately, people in positions of power realize this.
The governor of California – Gavin Newsom – recently issued an executive order on cryptocurrencies. In it, he laid out a roadmap for regulatory and consumer protections as well as explored the ways his state can utilize blockchain technology and digital currencies in the future.
Governor Newsom is putting the state’s business and economic development office to work along with a host of other regulatory agencies in California.
Newsom’s senior advisor and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development Dee Dee Myers, recently told CNBC that the order was designed to:
“...create a transparent and consistent business environment for companies operating in blockchain, including crypto assets and related financial technologies, that harmonizes federal and California laws, balances the benefits and risks to consumers, and incorporates California values, such as equity, inclusivity, and environmental protection.”
Myers also highlighted the fact that agencies were planning on holding rountables and listening sessions with leaders in the cryptocurrency space:
“We can do things like remove middlemen from transactions involving real estate or even automobiles. We can use it to protect people’s identity and provide benefits to people through government services. If we’re selling carbon offsets, we can make sure the same forest isn’t being sold twice and that there’s some record that’s transparent.”
This order is ultimately aligned with the Biden administration’s executive order, issued in March, which was an exploratory proposal looking into various aspects of the cryptocurrency space.
I wrote about Biden’s crypto executive order in detail a few weeks back in my publication Crypto Cycle. Find out why I think it’s a good thing over the long-term.
There are 37 states pushing through legislation on cryptocurrency and digital assets. And in February, the state of New Hampshire issued an executive order to enact new laws around Bitcoin.
All of these orders will lead to more clarity surrounding cryptocurrencies and their regulation in the future. Ultimately, this is good news because it highlights the government’s desire to formally acknowledge crypto, which will give institutions more confidence in developing Bitcoin and digital asset products moving forward.
Eventually this will lead to a spot bitcoin ETF and the continuation of price growth for the entire crypto ecosystem.
Chris Curl
Editor, Daily Profit Cycle