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Profs and Pints DC presents: “Reckoning with the Crypto Implosion,” a look at how government paved the way for the explosion and collapse of Bitcoin, FTX, and other cryptocurrencies and can make using them safe again, with V. Gerard Comizio, who teaches one of the nation’s first courses on virtual currency law as an adjunct professor and associate director of business law programs at American University’s Washington College of Law.
[The Hill Center is requiring proof of vaccination.]
Since Bitcoin’s emergence in 2008 as the first so-called “peer to peer” digital currency, we’ve witnessed the proliferation of virtual currencies, crypto trading exchanges, and related businesses, products, services and investments. In recent months, however, we’ve also witnessed developments destroying trust in that new market. Billions of dollars in wealth disappeared as the result of the failure of crypto exchanges and the highly publicized FTX bankruptcy. Some of those who have been burned are brought huge class-action lawsuits against a wide range of celebrities—including Tom Brady, Kim Kardashian, and Shaquille O’Neal—who endorsed crypto companies and investments that later crashed.
How did this financial disaster happen? What should investors learn from it? Can faith in crypto be restored?
Come hear such question tackled by Professor V. Gerard (“Jerry”) Comizio, a leading authority on financial services regulatory, transactional, and compliance matters and author of Virtual Currency Law: The Emerging Legal and Regulatory Framework. His course on virtual currency law at American University’s law school explores the emerging legal and regulatory framework related to virtual currency and block chain activities. A ticket to hear him speak is one of the shrewdest purchases a potential crypto investor can make.
Professor Comizio will discuss why crypto has been dogged from its inception by law enforcement, regulatory, and consumer protection concerns, as well as, more recently, even concerns related to national security and financial stability. He’ll talk about how crypto’s recent troubles have forced Congress and the Biden administration to focus on understanding what crypto is and on meeting the perceived need for comprehensive federal crypto regulation.
He’ll also examine the relative merits of the emerging framework of federal and state crypto regulation and look at whether it is possible to balance the government’s goal of encouraging fintech innovation with important concerns about fraud and abuse. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in.)
Image: Cryptocurrencies as photographed by Roger Brown (Pexel / Creative Commons). Photo edited with flame effects.
