4 ms·

Serious question: What's so onerous about the NY bitlicense? I find it hard to believe that a company like FTX, which is shelling out cash to name stadiums and

Serious question: What's so onerous about the NY bitlicense? I find it hard to believe that a company like FTX, which is shelling out cash to name stadiums and make endorsement deals, can't pony up the money to get the license.

rafale 5y ago
A bitlicense won't allow 100x leverage. That's where they make a lot of money, liquidating newbies.
buckie 5y ago
I looked into it. It is next to impossible to get. It doesn't take a crazy amount of money to get it, but from what I've experienced it looks like it takes a ton of wealth + the right connections + Albany politics. And that was years ago, I assume it's worse now. Moreover, there's no SLA for responding to the applications... so there are likely 500-1000 applications sitting in a box some where in Albany. Bitlicense isn't a disaster, but it's a huge problem if you're in the space that you really do need to be careful of crossing. Crypto has a meme factory but not a lobbying strategy, and even if it did it's up against two near immovable objects: old school finance lobbying and being an easy target/distraction in the press. We should just be thankful that Bitlicense wasn't adopted elsewhere and give up on NYC as a hub for this stuff. Until crypto grows beyond finance AND legal combined (legal will lobby with finance if asked) in terms of who makes money in NYC -or- crypto allies itself with another major mover (maybe real estate), don't expect things to ever change for the better. It's a shame really. NYC would be leading crypto if not for this law. But then again, NYC doesn't care because tech is probably the 5th or 6th largest revenue generator in the city and has few/no generation spanning connections to Albany.
- jjtheblunt 5y ago
  what would "leading crypto" look like? (genuine question that i've thought about)
  - wmf 5y ago
    It looks like 100x leverage YOLO "trading".

rafale 5y ago

A bitlicense won't allow 100x leverage. That's where they make a lot of money, liquidating newbies.

buckie 5y ago

I looked into it. It is next to impossible to get. It doesn't take a crazy amount of money to get it, but from what I've experienced it looks like it takes a ton of wealth + the right connections + Albany politics. And that was years ago, I assume it's worse now. Moreover, there's no SLA for responding to the applications... so there are likely 500-1000 applications sitting in a box some where in Albany. Bitlicense isn't a disaster, but it's a huge problem if you're in the space that you really do need to be careful of crossing. Crypto has a meme factory but not a lobbying strategy, and even if it did it's up against two near immovable objects: old school finance lobbying and being an easy target/distraction in the press. We should just be thankful that Bitlicense wasn't adopted elsewhere and give up on NYC as a hub for this stuff. Until crypto grows beyond finance AND legal combined (legal will lobby with finance if asked) in terms of who makes money in NYC -or- crypto allies itself with another major mover (maybe real estate), don't expect things to ever change for the better. It's a shame really. NYC would be leading crypto if not for this law. But then again, NYC doesn't care because tech is probably the 5th or 6th largest revenue generator in the city and has few/no generation spanning connections to Albany.

jjtheblunt 5y ago
what would "leading crypto" look like? (genuine question that i've thought about)
- wmf 5y ago
  It looks like 100x leverage YOLO "trading".