After four decades in finance, you start recognizing patterns. The recent municipal crypto initiative that turned into an outright rug pull is a textbook case of what happens when regulation lags behind launches.

Here's the thing: when local governments jump into crypto without proper guardrails, it doesn't just damage their credibility—it accelerates the inevitable regulatory crackdown. We're seeing this play out across the industry.

Regulation is coming fast. Not next year, not next quarter. Soon. The market's been operating in a gray zone for too long, and these high-profile failures are essentially writing the policy blueprint themselves. Projects that can't demonstrate basic compliance infrastructure are going to face serious headwinds.

The fraud cases are becoming harder to ignore. That's usually when the hammer drops.