Regulation of financial trading has and always will be an essential part of life. Since the crypto explosion a few years ago the various currencies that exist have gone unregulated and this has lead to the situation we are in now. 

One person can alter the price of any cryptocurrency with almost no effort. Elon Musk did exactly this in May and again in June of 2021 with tweets about his car manufacturers' relationship with the currency "Bitcoin", stating that they would no longer accept it as means to purchase goods due to the use of "fossil fuels for [the] mining [of the currency]" in May and then posted a "breakup meme" in June. After both tweets the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fell substantially.

Banks, lenders and other large financial institutes have invested in the cryptocurrency world in recent times and it is here that the biggest risk to the economy lies. The U.S. banking agencies are now looking to put plans in place plans to ensure that these investments do not end up harming the people who use these institutions. 

The banking regulators are due to sit down together in the coming months and add clarity to a number of areas that have yet been untouched and remain "grey areas". Some of the issues to be discussed include how banks should properly maintain custody of crypto assets, what firms should do to help consumers make transactions, how "stablecoins" should be issued and what capital and liquidity standards should be for lenders’ crypto holdings.

All of these are steps in the right direction in my opinion. If something is as volatile as cryptocurrency and can be devalued in the way it can be and our banks are investing in it, it is sensible to have measures in place to make sure there are backup plans in case things go wrong.

As with all technology, guidance and regulation is somewhat behind the curve here but the changes that are proposed can only be a good thing for the "everyman" and they are coming just at the right time.