Christopher Waller, Speech: Risk in the Crypto Markets,
“In summary, financial regulation is typically demanded (1) by financial intermediaries as a form of liability protection and (2) by the taxpayer to prevent socialization of individual losses. It does not arise to protect sophisticated, experienced, well-informed investors. On the contrary: Large-scale losses can easily occur even if these investors are getting the information they need to make decisions and are otherwise following the rules. If we want to allow broad access to the crypto ecosystem, then the question isn’t about what experienced users of that ecosystem want—it’s about what the rest of the public needs to have confidence in the ecosystem’s safety, and for better or worse, you can’t program confidence. That question doesn’t always have a clear answer, and it involves real and difficult tradeoffs. But it’s a question that every new and fast-growing financial product must address if it wants to last very long.”