The US is far from losing its venture crown

Coinbase is open to leaving the United States in the wake of a regulatory dispute with the government. A tone shift of that magnitude could have an impact on where the future of tech is being built and the opportunity of the global venture market ahead.

The Coinbase news does not exist in a vacuum. Various agencies of the U.S. government are taking a more aggressive posture on cryptocurrencies and digital assets and securities more generally — evidenced by a flurry of recent actions — while concern that developers are heading for the border pick up steam. The U.S. could, in time, shed some of its prominence in the crypto market if trends continue.

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But not so fast: Crypto may be something of an outlier (more on this later), and even then we have to heavily caveat the idea that the United States is in real danger of losing its place as the leading location to build tech companies.

Don’t take our word for it. Instead, we can learn quite a lot from venture capital investments themselves. Given that VCs are expected to be expert investors with a finger on the pulse of what’s next, where they place bets should be a good indicator of where there’s hot spots of innovation and optimism.