South African Professor Accuses US Regulators of Attempting to ‘Assassinate Crypto’

The United States’ attempts to “assassinate crypto” are illegal and unlikely to succeed because “crypto is global,” Steven Boykey Sidley, a South African professor and author, has argued. According to Sidley, many formerly U.S.-based companies and innovators have fled the country and have set up bases in countries with more “comfortable” regulatory environments.

Steven Boykey Sidley, a South African professor of practice at JBS, University of Johannesburg, has accused U.S. regulators and departments of orchestrating what he described as coordinated and “possibly illegal” efforts to “assassinate crypto.” Sidley insisted that there are no moral or legal grounds justifying the attempts to take out BTC, particularly when the world is in the midst of a banking crisis sparked by banking failures in the U.S.

In his op-ed published by the Daily Maverick, Sidley points to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s “opaque and non-explanatory” reasons for refusing to grant a national banking license to Custodia Bank as one example of how U.S. authorities are attempting to kill crypto. According to the professor, the bank and its founder Caitlin Long were committed to reducing risks and boosting depositors’ confidence “that their deposits into crypto-exchanges were backed 1:1.”

Sidley asserts in the op-ed that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s abrupt and inexplicable withdrawal from its engagements with Custodia suggests that the United States has a sinister agenda against cryptos.

Meanwhile, Sidley also highlighted how U.S. regulators have seemingly coordinated their actions against crypto entities.

“Curiously coincidental in time, sometimes happening within hours of a seemingly unrelated announcement from some different corner of government. Keep in mind, some of the bodies are supposed to be entirely independent – they are designed not to collaborate for excellent reasons of conflict avoidance,” Sidley said in the op-ed.

Despite what he sees as illegal acts by U.S. regulators, Sidley, the co-author of the book Beyond Bitcoin: Decentralised Finance and the End of Banks, insisted powerful opponents like U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren are still unlikely to get their way, because “crypto is global.” He claimed that many formerly United States-based companies, developers, and innovators have already moved to places like Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Switzerland where the regulatory environment is more “comfortable.”

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