Irish Examiner view: Time to act on crypto speculation

Cryptocurrency empire FTX was flattened as investors ran to pull out their funds before they became worthless

Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX empire was valued at $32bn (€30.9bn) earlier this year. File picture: Ting Shen/Bloomberg

There was a long-standing joke in a TV comedy series about a nightclub where the owner would tell his doubting managers and backers: “I have seen the future, and it’s garlic bread. I have tasted it.” 

This became a widely-quoted, all-purpose, shorthand description for a gamechanger, something which would irrevocably sweep away old certainties. And in recent years much of the same messianic fervour has been applied to the advent and implementation of cryptocurrencies, a sector of trading which is volatile, high risk, and largely unregulated.