One of the most durable claims of cryptocurrency skeptics is that “governments will ban bitcoin once it threatens their fiat currency or their control.” Ben Bernanke recently gave voice to this claim as if it was received wisdom.
Sorry, crypto-skeptics: Japan just killed the “bitcoin will be banned” meme. Japan has established itself as the safe haven of all legit cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Japan is not just the world’s third largest economy; it is a keystone of the global economy in supply chains, ownership of overseas assets, capital flows and technology. Japan’s embrace of cryptocurrencies suggests the Japanese understand that adoption of crypto and blockchain technology offers whatever nation is firstest with the mostest in legal protection of these technologies will have a powerful competitive advantage.
Many crypto skeptics claim the U.S. can browbeat adopters of bitcoin into banning cryptos via various threats such as limiting access to U.S. banking. Memo to skeptics: Japan is too strategically important for the U.S. to browbeat over something as small in scale as cryptos. Furthermore, Japan is long past the point where it will automatically comply with every self-destructive demand of the American Imperial project.
As I have often noted here, the market cap of the entire crypto market–$170 billion– is mere signal noise in the $500+ trillion market of global assets. Even if the crypto market rose 10-fold to $1.7 trillion, it would still be nothing but a tiny blip in the global asset marketplace.
Japan has the regulatory legal and bureaucratic structure to monitor and police crypto exchanges and transactions. This complex structure can be deployed to bog down whatever Japan doesn’t favor in endless red tape, or it can accommodate whatever Japan favors. Clearly, Japan favors the adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.
The legalization of cryptocurrencies is now a done deal. Any nation foolish and self-destructive enough to attempt to outlaw cryptos will simply hasten the flow of capital to Japan and other safe-haven early adopters.
Clearly, the Japanese recognize the adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies as a competitive advantage, and they’re right.
“We’re Back”- China’s Largest Crypto Traders Are Relocating
Sorry, Mr. Bernanke, you’re wrong yet again.
Of related interest: Why Governments Will Not Ban Bitcoin (October 23, 2017)
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