A few days ago, a friend of mine asked me in a quite serious manner: “Is it true that Michael (our CEO) and you both own private jets?”

My friend, especially given the current market conditions, I would like to thank you very much for thinking so highly of us!

Oh, and to answer his question, I showed him a picture of a LEGO private jet. Now that I can definitely afford with my humble pay.

Speaking of pay, did you guys notice a piece of news saying that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to hire a crypto financial analyst with an annual package of up to US$240k? Meanwhile, job website Glassdoor tells me that senior analysts with investment banks like Goldman Sachs are paid no more than US$150k per annum.

Before you zip out to apply for the vacancy, just FYI, one of the many conditions for employment is that you must be a US citizen. Come on, why do you think I’m still chitchatting with you guys rather than filling out the application form?

Sorry, enough of the silly jokes.

I mean, seriously, why would the crypto world ever be ignited by a traditional financial regulator’s head-hunting? This piece of news went viral on my side of the Pacific Ocean, and I bet it’s no less hot on the other side.

Fine, the American SEC is not “A” financial regulator. It may well be “THE” regulator at the helm of the financial world.

Our forerunners in the traditional financial world — the watchdogs, investment banks, exchanges, fund houses, quant teams — their impact is massive for the brand-new crypto continent.

Check out the following example.

I suppose we can all agree that the cheerful start of this week’s market largely diluted our Monday blues, as the Bitcoin price jumped by over US$100 within a 30 minute period at midnight EST on April 22 (or noon on April 23 UTC+8).

What triggered the sudden pump?

Take it as connecting the dots afterwards as, at that time, a quantitative analyst tweeted about a Bitcoin product that was traded via the unknown symbol “CXERX”, which was purportedly listed on Nasdaq.

WOW. Bitcoin trading on the world’s second-largest stock exchange by market-cap? Despite the suspicious ticker symbol, such allegations would be perfectly inciting.

That’s because this is a superspeed world. A miss of just seconds might cause a million-dollar loss in prospect interest. One can hardly help thinking about it: what would happen if Bitcoin-based products were truly traded on Nasdaq?

I believe few people would question a traditional financial giants’ influence on the crypto world.

I‘ve got another one.

Remember when JP Morgan announced their move into stable coins earlier this year? There were, of course, some quite opposite interpretations of the world’s leading financial firm’s action.

Some took it as a strong indicator of a soon to come revival, or even a blossom, of the crypto world, while others would rather be vigilant or even worried about the big guys in stocks, bonds, and dodgy derivatives easily taking over their little BTC/ETH brothers.

Both of these interpretations, despite the extremely different sentiments, were quite genuine and strong reactions towards the traditional financial players stepping in.

Frankly, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see more Wall Street guys flood into our world over the coming years, or even quarters.

It is in the genes of Bitcoin, as well as the genes of the global Wall Street-ers.

The former, born as a currency despite not being physically tangible, was featured as electronic cash, which is increasingly used and invested in the real world. The latter? They are money chasers.

The former, coded with the vision of becoming a perfectly neutral medium of value, was supposed to smoothen all kinds of real transactions or any other trading in a financial sense, while cutting out the human flaws like, typically, trust issues. The latter should better serve real economic development by directing money to the most needed areas (interpreted as “most profitable areas” in the real world).

Therefore, it is not hard to point out that there is a notable overlap between the mission of cryptocurrency and the noble job of the traditional financial whales.

Thus, I think it makes a lot of sense for us to learn from the old money-movers. I mean, before they got outrageously greedy, these guys did a pretty good job laying the groundwork — the fundamental rules, the various financial tools and the regulations that protect the general public.

Yes, we very much respect their work, at least before they got super rich, super greedy and super manipulative.

So, what should we do? We absolutely should not copy and paste word by word.

I say we cream off the best and filter out the impurities.