Regulations are inevitable, and for that reason I rather see them be forced through right now than tomorrow. It will take away uncertainties as well, which should open the door even further for non crypto parties to enter.
I actually believe that the banks are more of an obstacle for growth than regulations. It has been a returning topic that banks freeze bank accounts of crypto related businesses, and reject applications for bank accounts in case it concerns a crypto related applicant. It's a nasty move just because they can't stand what crypto stands for.
I have dealt with two banks in the last couple of years where they forced me to either stop completely with crypto activities, or to close my bank account immediately. The latter I did. I'm glad that my current bank isn't such a jerk.
Do you think that ICOs were the biggest ever crypto related shitshow or will we face a new hype that will make the ICO boom look like a joke? I personally believe that we've seen the worst.
It's definitely over. ICO's had free game last year, and that's largely over at this point, and with how regulations are continuously being deployed on a much larger scale, the demand for ICO's will continue to diminish. If you also take into consideration that top tier crypto exchanges won't be blindly listing every ICO token anymore (also for legal reasons), it makes another ICO pop even less likely than it already was.
It will be interesting to see how the utility platforms will adapt to far lower ICO demand, because that's what they have been banking on all the time.