Crypto markets are still under pressure, and that's contributing to growing calls for regulation. But what would regulation look like in the U.S., and what would it mean for firms that try to minimize risk by focusing on exchange-traded products? Russell Starr, Executive Chairman & CEO of Valour, joins Closing Bell to discuss priorities in the regulatory space, issues surrounding stablecoins in particular, and more.

Closing Bell

As Crypto Trades Lower and Risk Seems Higher, How Should Regulations be Implemented?

well as crypto remains under pressure, calls for regulation continue to grow. And this time it's coming from Federal Reserve Vice Chair Leo Bernard, as she said last week during the Bank of England conference that the crypto market is susceptible to traditional financial risks. And she also emphasized the need for robust investor protection against potential exploitation, market manipulation and other factors. So what could happen next? And how could regulations impact firms across the board? Well, joining me now is Russell star executive chair and ceo of valor, a company offering exchange traded products for digital assets. Russell, thanks for coming on. So I'd like to get your thoughts on this, especially when it comes to regulation. What do you think should be a top priority here? Look, I think the first place that, that the world needs to look at regulation is on the actual exchanges themselves. Um, you know, our company is a little bit different than anything else out there, but if I was the sec, that's the way I would be approaching it and that's what you're seeing also in europe. Um, and and you know, it's funny, normally you see the U. S. At the forefront of regulation, at the forefront of innovation, but in this particular instance it's actually europe that tends to lead the lead the market trends right now. Okay, so I am curious your company does actually offer exchange traded products. So how would this impact? What you, what you offer investors? This is exactly what we've anticipated for quite some time. So every product that we launch is cleared by prospectus, every single client who buys our product is ky seed. We literally are doing exactly what the sec wants done. And that's why this is such an innovative company. So, um, we sort of took the concept of, you know, the hut, the Hive, all of these mining companies and that you were just mentioning that that was how people were getting exposure to Bitcoin and ethereum and whatnot. But no one was giving a holistic opportunity for the investment public to get into call it solana or polka dot on a regulated traditional exchange. And so that's what we do. Um, so we love the regulation. Uh, certainly I think people say the more regulation, the better in this space makes people feel a bit safer playing in there. But to that end, I know one of your products actually tracks the price of luna, that coin tied to the stable coin terror usd that collapsed in May, of course, alleged the onset of the so called crypto winter. A lot of the collapse that we've seen generally across the crypto space as well. What sort of activity did you see on that front? And what's the status of that? Uh, well, the, the status was that it traded for a while as any traditional product would trade and then ultimately the regulators intervened and did exactly what they shouldn't halted the, the trading of the actual product. Um, for us, it was ironically de minimus of all of our a um across all of our products, it was it was less than one and it was a relatively new product and I think really what you need to look at is stable coins in general and and obviously there were issues associated with terra luna and the algorithm behind it. But what I try to keep on explaining to people is look this is a new nascent ecosystem that is growing in many instances two times faster than the internet ever group. You don't really know who the winners and losers are going to be. So isn't it isn't it better to have the ability to actually participate across a broader spectrum and and and that's exactly what we're trying to do for the investing public. Um You know, not every internet company Russell, let me ask you this, how do investors invest in your products? You have exchange traded products if they want to invest in one of them, how do they go about doing that? Yeah they just go through their traditional broker dealer and and literally buy it on a european exchange so you can buy it on the Euronext exchange, you can buy it on the MGM. Um It is kind of frustrating that that the U. S. Is still maintaining a really difficult posture when it comes to allowing products such as ours to be to be listed in the US. But the rest of the world is a big world and quite frankly as a U. S. Investor, you can buy it on a european exchange and just quickly russell, it basically follows the price, right the spot price of of these different digital assets, like a Bitcoin, for instance. Okay, we got to leave it there. We're running tight on time, Russell star executive chair and Ceo of Valor Russell. Thank you.