Advocacy group Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) announced Wednesday that it is expanding its influence across Asia, Europe, and Africa via several new partnerships and the addition of a new advisor. The announcement underscores advancements in crypto policy that have been made outside the United States.
CCI’s new partnerships include those with the Japan Crypto-Asset Business Association (JCBA) and the Global Digital Finance (GDF) in the UK. Simultaneously, the organization is also expanding its partnerships with the Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA) and the Decentralization Research Center (DRC). Finally, CCI announced it is adding Yele Bademosi, a leader in the African blockchain space, as an advisor.
Countries outside the US have been leaders in the regulation of decentralized projects, whereas American regulators have tended to merely apply existing laws written for centralized companies to blockchain projects. In Japan, for example, where mining Bitcoin became popular earlier than most other countries, the Japan Financial Services Agency began researching potential market structure rules for cryptocurrencies as early as 2014. And several African nations, including Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, have exceptionally high rates of cryptocurrency adoption, incentivizing their governments to regulate transactions in ways that have been both friendly and hostile to the emerging industry.
CCI’s partnership with the JCBA is meant to align regulatory efforts across the key markets of the US and Asia. “This partnership strengthens both organizations’ ability to drive thoughtful, informed policy discussions on a global scale,” said CCI CEO Sheila Warren in a statement.
CCI’s collaboration with the GDF, meanwhile, will focus on developing financial services through decentralized financial infrastructure in the US and UK in particular. “CCI and GDF are both recognized by industry, policymakers, and regulators as the preeminent global industry associations with a track record of building community consensus and delivering material outcomes that move the digital assets industry forward,” said GDF Executive Director Elise Soucie Watts.
The addition of Bademosi as an advisor, meanwhile, helps CCI expand its network across a continent that is seeing accelerated rates of cryptocurrency adoption as a means of facilitating both financial inclusion and cross-border payments. Bademosi is the co-creator of Onboard Global, a financial platform targeting frontier markets created by web3 application firm Nestcoin, early-stage African venture capital firm Microtraction, and African crypto and cash payments app Bundle Africa.
“Through Bademosi’s leadership, CCI will work to connect African innovators with global policymakers, ensuring that Africa’s burgeoning crypto industry is represented in discussions shaping the future of digital finance,” said Warren.
Lastly, CCI’s work with POSA and DRC is expected to help it increase its knowledge of the $600 billion crypto staking market and continue to support blockchain decentralization.
