Crypto industry must ‘suffer’ for consorting with criminals
Businessman Mark Carnegie has painted a lurid picture of the cryptocurrency bull market of the past few years, accusing the sector of making “common cause with criminals and scumbags”.
He welcomed plans by the federal government to subject crypto exchanges and digital asset platforms to existing Australian financial services laws and require platform operators to obtain an Australian Financial Services Licence.
Crypto investor Mark Carnegie. Peter Rae
“Whatever happens in terms of the regulatory framework… we have nobody to blame but ourselves,” Mr Carnegie, the founder of MHC Digital Group, told The Australian Financial Review Cryptocurrency Summit.
“To the extent that anybody bitches and moans about regulation, we sowed the wind. We made common cause with criminals and scumbags for far too long by virtue of the bull market.”
Earlier, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones outlined plans to regulate crypto and digital assets to protect consumers. Almost 30,000 Australian investors are trying to recoup money they lost when Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX collapsed late last year.
Mr Carnegie was one of the customers of FTX caught up in the Bahamas-based exchange’s epic collapse. Mr Bankman Friend is currently on trial in New York, accused of using customer funds to make risky venture capital investments and donate to political causes.
Mr Carnegie said crypto’s utopian goals were overrun by “a lot of really, really scummy Ponzi schemes”.
“We all by virtue of the people who are surviving today, were part of that and enjoyed the bull market and we have to suffer the day at collective responsibility.
“We are going to have to dig in and find a way through this bear market to actually prove that what we believed about the technology, which
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