The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Securities Commission’s top executive yesterday said it was a “bit much” for The Bahamas to take all the blame over the FTX crypto currency exchange’s collapse.

Christina Rolle, the capital markets regulator’s executive director, was responding to a question at the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) annual accountants week seminars after she was asked whether Sam Bankman-Fried’s guilty verdict raised concerns over this nation’s ability to regulate the digital asset space effectively.

Ms Rolle pointed out that FTX was regulated in 19 jurisdictions, including The Bahamas, and therefore it was a “bit much’” for the country to take responsibility for the crypto exchange’s November 2022 implosion.

She said: “I think that, though, The Bahamas has to appreciate - and persons in The Bahamas particularly have to appreciate - that FTX was regulated in 19 jurisdictions, one of which was here. And so to take on the responsibility of all that happened upon ourselves I think is a bit much.”

Another BICA attendee asked about The Bahamas’ attractiveness to digital asset operators, and what legislative changes have been made, in the wake of FTX’s collapse.

Ms Rolle replied that The Bahamas is a regulated jurisdiction and, although some firms were attracted to the jurisdiction by FTX’s presence, the interest generated by the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges (DARE) Act was stronger than the market response generated by other legislation.

She said: “I think one of the things we have to realise when we talk about the interest that is in the jurisdiction, is that there was quite a bit of interest in the jurisdiction because FTX was here.

“And so, when you discount for that, I think we’re still seeing a very healthy interest in the jurisdiction, certainly faster than other pieces of legislation that we’ve introduced. So I would say it’s healthy.”

Ms Rolle added that many of the imminent reforms made to the DARE Act were due to developments in the digital assets industry and not solely a response to FTX.

She said: “I think that, for the most part, most of what was in the Bills that came out for consultation in April were developments that came through crypto. I don’t know that they’re specific to FTX as they are to the crypto world on the whole.”