I think it necessary to have regulations! However, the regulations must not try to steal any thunder from the main body, which are Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies themselves. Proper regulations help us to abide by rules, so we can avoid some unnecessary risk in advance. But too much regulation will definately cut the vitality of both players and market. 
Therefore, proper softing regulations will definately help. 
There's no soft regulations, if the government start to regulate Bitcoin then you need to expect in the near future there will be a more regulations comes up and then it's no more soft regulations. The example is Binance where they let anyone to withdraw without KYC for 2BTC/day, but after SEC force them to implemented KYC on all customers, after that they're ask anyone KYC even you're not doing anything. Therefore, proper softing regulations will definately help. Bitcoin shouldn't and never need to be regulated, it's only need to be not banned and everyone have a freedom to buy or not.