ATHENS (RockedBuzz via Reuters) – Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao said on Friday that regulation rather than opposition of the cryptocurrency industry is a better option for world governments as digital currencies become more prevalent.
Cryptocurrency regulation has come under fire following the collapse of several platforms, which culminated in the crash of the FTX currency exchange earlier this month.
“I think most governments now understand that adoption will happen regardless. It’s better to regulate the industry instead of trying to fight it,” Zhao said, speaking at a Binance event in Athens.
The murky world of cryptocurrencies came into the spotlight when FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on Nov. 11 after traders withdrew $6 billion from the platform in three days.
The collapse has left an estimated 1 million creditors facing losses totaling billions of dollars.
However, Zhao said he expects the industry to recover. “(This year) has been a very bad year, too many things have happened in the last couple of months. I think now we see the industry is healthier…just because FTX happened doesn’t mean every other business is bad” , he said .
Asked if he has seen countries adding cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to their reserves in the future, Zhao said he expected countries to start, especially those that didn’t have their own currency.
“The smaller countries will go first, I think,” he said.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou, writing by Michele Kambas; editing by Anna Driver)
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