YF TWITTER POLL: 63% believe SEC crypto regulation will hurt investors

Viewers weigh in after SEC threatens to crackdown on Coinbase.

Video Transcript

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ZACK GUZMAN: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. Obviously, it's been a very busy week for crypto here, as we've seen the Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong tweet about the SEC and potential problems there around their Lend platform and getting stopped in trying to give customers interest on it. And it's really, Akiko, the first ratcheting up of pressure here from the SEC in the crypto space.

We wanted to ask our followers, watchers of the show, our question this week in that, do you believe that regulation for crypto will help or hurt individual investors? And the overwhelming majority here, 63% saying that it will hurt investors more. About 37% said it will help investors. And that's the big question. I suppose maybe the SEC doesn't care about optics but a lot of crypto investors out there a little worried maybe about what regulations are coming down.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, and it's important to note that last point you made I think is important to note, it's not a scientific poll. You'd imagine that those who are very pro-crypto were the ones that were more engaged in the poll itself but it is interesting because this is a discussion that we've been having all week but of course, one that is likely to continue here until the SEC comes out with these guardrails for what is a new space. And in the meantime, we have seen price fluctuations on the back of headlines that are largely speculative about which direction the SEC is going to go. But it is overwhelming, Zack, at least for those who are invested in crypto, with 60% saying that they think it's going to hurt investors ultimately.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and we got a few responses there as you said, not a scientific poll. So people out there could just chime in but interesting responses in terms of what one user here, The Crypto Yowie expected, saying, "Regulation will hurt investors by introducing stringent know your customer requirements, potentially limiting the volume ahead as a consequence." But also some positives, "Regulation will also make cryptocurrency a legitimate investment in the eyes of institutions."

And that's really what we've been talking about is kind of across the board, people in crypto saying, look, you know, it's going to unlock the big swath of investment dollars from institutions that come in once they know it's safe and the SEC is not going to crack down and kind of end the parade so to speak. So very interesting to see it all play out. And we'll keep you posted obviously as we get those updates from the SEC.