Patrick Witt: U.S. regulatory pressure has pushed crypto innovation offshore.

Patrick Witt is sounding the alarm on a familiar but consequential pattern: restrictive U.S. regulation has driven crypto development to more permissive jurisdictions, ceding ground on what he frames as the future of financial infrastructure.

Witt's argument is less about any single rule and more about the cumulative effect of an uncertain regulatory environment — one that forces builders to choose between compliance ambiguity at home and clearer frameworks abroad. The U.S., in his view, needs to move from reactive enforcement to proactive standard-setting if it wants to shape how global financial rails are built.

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