Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner says cryptocurrencies should have been banned because they can be used to exert excessive political influence, arguing that inadequate regulation has broader social consequences. He extends that criticism to user profiling for advertising and content algorithms, saying society and democracy are already dealing with the effects. Von Tetzchner also notes that some AI companies are seeking regulation because they appear unable to restrain themselves. The longtime crypto critic has previously opposed adding a native wallet to Vivaldi, while rival browser Opera pursued Web3 (decentralized internet applications) and crypto features. Vivaldi has also rejected browser-integrated AI, including an LLM chatbot (large language model assistant) and automatic summarization, and says it has more than 4.2 million active users and over 2.5 million community members.