The U.S. slipped to 9th place in the global competitiveness ranking
Date: 2023-06-29 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: IN WORLD
The United States is rapidly losing ground in the global competitiveness ranking, giving way to European countries, including due to the country's tough position on cryptocurrencies
The lack of clear regulation of the cryptocurrency market threatens the United States with a "brain drain" and loss of competitiveness on the world stage. According to the American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, the country risks losing up to a million blockchain developers by 2030 due to regulatory uncertainty. The company believes that the US share in the global development of the Web3 market has already fallen from 40% to 29%.
U.S. Regulator Angry At Crypto Projects
In early June, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, accusing the platform of selling unregistered securities. The regulator said the platform has never registered as a broker, national stock exchange or clearing agency, shying away from a disclosure scheme for securities markets.
The SEC also sued other cryptocurrency projects, accusing them of selling unregistered securities. The repression almost immediately led to the fact that some tokens, which the SEC considers as securities, were removed from listing on several trading platforms.
The U.S. exchange regulator has previously pursued the cryptocurrency business in the United States. For example, the Kraken exchange had to curtail the cryptocurrency staking service due to a $30 million fine from the SEC. The Commission itself assures that there is nothing difficult in having a crypto business register with the SEC. However, the media found out that almost all companies that agreed to the requirements of the regulator eventually either closed or faced business difficulties.
The U.S. is losing competitiveness
U.S. policy on innovative industries has already affected the country's position in the global market. If in 2000 the country occupied the first place in the world ranking of competitiveness, now it occupies only the ninth position. The results of the study are provided by the market data provider Statista, which studied the reporting of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD).
According to IMD's official website, the ranking is based on how countries manage their resources to achieve long-term goals. The ranking consists of 336 criteria selected as a result of a comprehensive study of government agencies and academia, according to IMD.
Jurisdictions loyal to cryptocurrency win
According to published data, Denmark is in first place in the ranking as of 2023, Ireland is in second, and Switzerland is in the top three. At the same time, back in 2010, neither Denmark nor Ireland was in the top 10 countries in terms of competitiveness.
The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority does not regulate or prohibit the activities of cryptocurrency businesses in the country. There are no special licenses for crypto businesses, as, for example, it is arranged in New York. In Ireland, as the editors wrote earlier, citizens invest 92% more in cryptocurrency than residents of the UK, France and Spain. In Switzerland, a crypto fund has been approved at the state level, and the local state-owned bank PostFinance provides services for the sale and purchase of cryptocurrencies.
IMD Chief Economist Christos Cabolis believes that small countries have managed to quickly break to the top of the ranking due to their relatively small economies. According to him, countries like Denmark "can adapt policies in a timely manner to the current economic conditions."
Coinbase believes that inaction with regulation and continued repression by the SEC could lead to the fact that the US authorities will miss out on one of the most significant technological and economic opportunities in modern history.
