Blockchain Association Leaves New York as Federal Regulatory Fight Looms

The Blockchain Association, a crypto industry advocacy group, is exiting New York as it gears up to fight against federal regulators’ increasingly stringent restrictions on the cryptocurrency industry.

“Blockchain Association is shifting resources out of New York State to focus on federal policy – and we continue to hire and build out our full-time staff in Washington,” Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith told CoinDesk through a spokesperson. “Our mission remains the same: to advance the future of crypto in the United States.”

The move comes just months after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law banning certain types of cryptocurrency mining in the Empire State. New York is the first state in the country to ban the activity. It also follows federal regulators’ broader crackdown on the digital assets industry in the wake of centralized cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s multi-billion dollar collapse.

At the federal level, the Securities and Exchange Commission has taken action against prominent industry players including centralized crypto exchanges Bittrex, Kraken and Gemini, crypto lender Genesis (which is owned by CoinDesk parent company Digital Currency Group) and individual actors such as Tron founder Justin Sun in recent months, deepening an existing digital asset market downturn.

Regulators’ actions have sparked outrage among crypto advocates, fueling cries for regulators to clarify existing regulatory guidelines to allow crypto companies to register with the federal agency and stem the damage from a recent swath of high-profile crackdowns.

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