Buda CEO: Exchanges Must Comply or Risk Damaging the Crypto Industry

Exchange Latin America Regulation

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked...

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June 26, 2023 06:54 EDT

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The head of Chile’s market-leading crypto exchange Buda said that crypto exchanges must hurry up and comply with government regulations or risk oblivion – and further damage to the wider crypto asset industry.

In a podcast interview with Criptonoticias, Buda founder and CEO Guillermo Torrealba warned that crypto exchanges should toe the government line on regulatory matters, even at the expense of safeguarding their clients’ privacy, if needs be.

The alternatives, he said, could be dire, and cause “a lot of damage to cryptocurrencies.”

Non-compliant companies could risk closure, and their operators could even risk arrest, Torrealba opined.

Buda is also active in Argentina, Colombia, and Peru.

He cautioned,

“Cryptocurrencies themselves are in danger because if the Chilean [government] comes to the conclusion that big crypto companies are being subversive and uncooperative, it could eventually adopt anti-crypto policies.”

Torrealba said that Buda protects its own clients’ privacy “as far as it can,” but had cooperated with government agencies’ request to submit data for anti-money laundering probes, as well as investigations into suspected scams.

And the CEO claimed that crypto exchanges who think they can bypass regulations are ignoring the realities of business life in the financial sector. All industries must abide by government regulations, including those pertaining to client data, he said – and the crypto industry should not think the same rules do not apply in their case.

The law, added Torrealba, did not consider crypto companies to be “special” and exempt from regulation.
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