Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) became widely known from 2013, although Bitcoin, the first digital currency, was already launched in 2009. Matters really took off in 2017 with a new coin or token being introduced in yet another ICO every other day. However, the boom turned into a bust in 2018 and since then, speculators and investors have become more sophisticated. Or so we all thought. 2022 will go down into the history books as the year when several of the most established crypto businesses crashed in rather spectacular ways and billions of dollars of investor funds were wiped out. TerraUSD and Luna were barely out of the headlines, when FTX got into trouble. Initially, at least some investors were still talking about "buying the dip". Not so much these days... Is this the end of crypto? You can download, free of charge, several publications and presentations here. A special issue of the European Journal of Law Reform on Blockchain and Digital Currency Law is going to print very soon... We will post updates and ways to access the material online...
- Frank Emmert