Why regulated exchanges?

The universe tends towards maximum irony—people want to say damn the man and get away from sovereign currency, but most of the same people agree that government has a legitimate interest in protecting people against fraud and violence.

The trustless nature of cryptocurrency fails at the point of exchanges. If you want to exchange one cryptocurrency for another, that transaction frequently requires you to trust the exchange. Likewise, if you want another party to follow through on a transaction on which they might lose money, the other party either needs to be known to you so you can pursue recourse in the courts, or the law needs to put the onus on the exchange to pay out the claim.

The most likely outcome is that in the US, the SEC or CFTC will begin licensing exchanges, and exchanges will have certain liquidity requirements. This will make unbanked companies a less risky proposition.