The cryptocurrency market is unregulated. Some countries only regulate Bitcoin, thus leaving other cryptocurrencies unchecked. The website coinmarketcap.com tracks the market activities of 831 cryptocurrencies while coinranking.com tracks the activity of 1,016 cryptocurrencies. The absence of regulation in the Industry will bring rise to fraud, price manipulations, and easy entry and exit by cryptocurrency developers as well as the lack of user protectionism.
Price fluctuations and surges
Price volatility is a common occurrence in this industry, and cryptocurrencies can rise or fall at any value.
For example, over the last 24 Hours the cryptocurrency FuckToken has increased by 204 percent, AvatorCoin has risen by 111 percent, while PIECoin has increased by 80 percent.
Cryptocurrencies that have lost the most in value in the last 24 hours are HitCoin, whose value has dropped by 38 percent, the price of Falcoin has decreased by 38 percent, while the cryptocurrency Pirate Blocks has lost 30 percent of its value.
The regulation of these currencies would thus prevent the currencies from experiencing high-price volatility. For example, regulation can be put in place to bar the prices of currencies from rising or falling by more than 10 percent within 24 hours. This would bar holders of these currencies from experiencing massive losses within a short period.
Anonymity within the industry
Cryptocurrency users can exchange their coins with high levels of anonymity. Dark net website such as users of the recently closed AlphaBay used cryptocurrencies to buy illegal items such as drugs and guns. The creator of WannaCry accepted Bitcoin as a mode of payment to hide his identity from investigators.
Most creators of these currencies are unknown. For example, the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, denied ever creating the currency.
Requiring creators of these currencies to reveal their identity and have a designated office would build confidence within the industry. Tracking the movement of the coins between users would ensure the identification of those using the currencies to engage in illegal activities.
High levels of fraud
There are cases of fraud within the industry. Numerous cryptocurrency exchange sites have either been hacked or have disappeared with client money. On July 5, Business Insider reported that the world's largest Bitcoin exchange site, Bithumb, had been hacked. 30,000 customer identities and U.S $880,000 was lost. In February 2014, the cryptocurrency exchange site MT Gox collapsed after hackers stole $460 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
Regulating exchange sites would ensure that owners of such sites are held liable for the loss as a result of hacking. The owners will also be required by a regulator to have a high level of security features within their I.T. infrastructure to avoid hacking incidences.
