Hi there. It’s Brady.
Cryptocurrencies are having a moment this year, even with—or perhaps because of—huge swings in the value of the most popular coins.
With trading volume at an all-time high in some corners of Southeast Asia, central banks and monetary regulators are establishing new rules to limit the scope of exchanges. Stephanie, one of my colleagues, unpacked the regulatory crackdown on crypto through Thailand’s latest move on Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.
Binance itself is no stranger to regulatory impediments; this is largely why its founder describes the company as having no headquarters. But an extra layer of complexity is present now because various countries in Southeast Asia—Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam—are exploring the possibility of rolling out their own central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs.
The core idea here is that the key selling point of cryptocurrencies—decentralization—is absent from CBDCs. Whether you’re into decentralized crypto or the touted convenience of CBDCs, this is a space where innovation and regulation clash and mingle, in turn reshaping our relationships with money and value.
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