The crypto industry spent a decade insisting it didn't need regulation.

Now the same companies are asking regulators to hurry up — because uncertainty costs more than rules.

I see a quieter version of this in Dubai every week, with something much less exotic than crypto: personal data.

Most small businesses never asked for the UAE data-protection rules. They arrived anyway. And the ones who treated it as a nuisance are now scrambling, while the ones who did the boring work early — a proper consent notice, a way to delete someone's data on request — barely noticed the deadline.

Rules don't wait for you to want them. The cheap moment to comply is always the one before you have to.