‘Thousands’ quit US over crypto negativity: Blockchain chief

Thousands of cryptocurrency industry developers have left the United States because of its negative stance towards the sector, the head of one of the pioneer exchanges told an international forum Thursday.

Despite a “wild year” of scandal and failure in 2022 when the FTX exchange and a number of crypto dealers collapsed, Peter Smith, chief executive of London-based Blockchain.com, told the Qatar Economic Forum that there is now “real growth” in the crypto community.

Smith, who said nearly a decade as head of Blockchain.com had left him with “no nerve endings”, told how other countries were taking advantage of the void left by the US where some regulators were “openly negative about crypto”.