Despite the unprecedented regulatory pressure that crypto has been facing recently in the United States, the fight between the American government and the crypto industry has just started, believes ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees. 

According to the entrepreneur, U.S. authorities still don’t see crypto as an existential threat to the fiat system, and their recent crackdown is just an opportunistic reaction to last year’s blowups of fraudulent crypto companies. 

“They see it as sort of this scammy area where they can come in and look like the hero for cleaning up a mess,” Voorhees said in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph.

According to Voorhees, crypto needs to become mainstream before governments move against it fully. At that point, “it will be too late” for government actors to crack down on crypto since too many people will be aware of its value and utility.

Voorhees has no doubt that crypto will ultimately win the battle for the hearts and minds of people in part because it is free from the restrictions on capital flow that are present in traditional finance systems.

“Capital goes where friction is least […]. In the crypto world, capital moves freely, it moves effortlessly,” he pointed out.

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