The CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management expressed his concerns for the crypto industry in NY due to strict policies.
As the general regulatory framework idea for digital assets has become a lot more clear, some government authorities are still looking for their own ways to regulate cryptocurrencies.
The permit in question was imposed by New York’s State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) called BitLicense. It was initially introduced in 2015 to regulate anything related to digital assets, and businesses in New York could only participate in the crypto industry if they had the BitLicense.
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However, this sparked controversy amongst several VC firm owners in New York who couldn’t even open a cryptocurrency exchange account, because of BitLicense. In fact, the permit forced several digital asset-based businesses to move out of the city, and look for places with less uncertain policies on crypto.
This led to an outrage on social media, and one user, who runs a crypto venture capital firm, stated that living in New York restricts him from opening an account on some of the largest exchanges in the United States.
His concern was backed up by billionaire Bill Ackman who called out the governor and mayor of New York on Twitter. Ackman urged the government authorities to remove these barriers, and help NY become "a crypto center of innovation."
While New York looked to be quite crypto-friendly as the mayor Eric Adams presented himself as an advocate for Bitcoin, and even opted to take his salary in crypto, the city seems nowhere near being a blockchain innovation hub with such flawed regulatory measures.
