Acting head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Michael Hsu has warned that the exotic financial products developed in some quarters of crypto and DeFi were reminiscent of those that precipitated the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC).
Speaking before the Blockchain Association on Sept. 21, Hsu warned that “innovation for innovation’s sake [...] risks creating a mountain of fool’s good,” drawing analogies between the rapid proliferation of digital asset derivatives and the explosion in mortgage and debt derivatives such a Credit Default Swaps (CDS) that preceded the 2008 global financial crisis: