The U.S. must establish clear crypto guardrails or risk falling behind other countries in innovation and market leadership, Linda Jeng, chief global regulatory officer at the Crypto Council for Innovation said.

“If you want broad adoption of crypto, you need rules of the road,” Jeng said, and the U.S. is “unfortunately lagging behind.”

Jeng, a Georgetown University law professor and former regulator for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said the U.S. must come up with its own rules if it wants to be the leader in crypto innovation.