This is the final part of a three-part series covering the regulatory landscape for cryptos in 2019 and thinking about the prospects for 2020. The first two parts covered the “Insiders” of Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim, and “Outsider” nations such as China, Russia and India. This piece covers the prospects for the “Experimenters”: countries that have made efforts to foster innovation and welcome crypto projects to their shores.
The Swiss were the first to discover the power of neutrality in the embattled Europe of the 19th century, maintaining a secure, private and nondiscriminatory banking system that granted the mountainous nation centuries of sustained affluence. This has continued into the crypto era, with strong and well-funded projects flooding into the Swiss “Crypto Valley.” Switzerland accomplished this without drafting rules or legislation catering specifically to crypto. Instead, the Swiss have applied their existing regime — already designed with privacy, security and autonomy in mind — favorably to the projects that move onshore and avoid international scrutiny or skepticism about a new set of rules designed for crypto projects.