Latest / The Paul Barron Crypto Show / CLARITY Fail Aftermath🔥Coinbase INTERVIEW Kara Calvert🚨

Transcript

CLARITY Fail Aftermath🔥Coinbase INTERVIEW Kara Calvert🚨 · The Paul Barron Crypto Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's get into the Clarity Autopsy Report today. We're going
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to pick up the pieces from yesterday's fail, and we're
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: going to do that with Coinbase.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: So stick around for everything. We're going to jump right
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: into it.
• 0:10
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• 0:12
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• 1:11
  Speaker 1: let them know we sent you. I want to start
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: off with a recap of everything that happened yesterday.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Take a look.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: This bill would turbocharge Donald Trump's unprecedented Corruption.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: compromise looks like.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Take the win.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: On this vote, the yeas are 49 and the nays
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: are 50.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: The motion is not agreed to.
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: Cloacher vote on the Clarity Act is a failing.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Some Republicans may have been against this.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: We've got Ether falling about 5.6 percent and XRP down 8.6 percent.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Dogecoin down 4 percent. What's 8 cents?
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: So I'm looking at Coinbase, for example, which right now
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: has tanked. In the meantime, you did have experts like
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: Cathie Wood, who was selling off some of her crypto stocks. Look,
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: Congress only has a few working days left, right, before
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: lawmakers leave Washington for the November midterm.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: So what's a working day at Congress? Oh, I don't know.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, can you go just a couple of weeks
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: without taking a recess? That's what I'm talking about. It's
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: just out of control. It's a working day. Yeah, I
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: don't know.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: Okay, more blame, though.
• 2:49
  Speaker 6: Let me give a little bit more blame because you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: the other thing is, they were not willing to call
• 2:55
  Speaker 6: out President Trump for things that anybody could see easily
• 2:58
  Speaker 6: were going to be bad for the industry. That is
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: what killed the bill. President Trump, I do think bears
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: some of the blame for this. And, you know, I
• 3:06
  Speaker 6: know this is a kind of controversial statement because obviously
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: the crypto community right now is definitely blaming the Democrats.
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: And I can also blame the Democrats. They have this
• 3:16
  Speaker 6: original sin, I would say.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: So you can see the lineup was pretty heavy yesterday
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: for obvious reasons, many of which kind of led to
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: what happened at the Clarity Act. You look at the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: no votes yesterday. This is going into independents. We saw
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Sanders and King voting no. Then you had Republicans Tom Tillis, Moran, Hawley,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: and Collins. And then essentially every Democrat voted no. So
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: that was really what the boil down was. And it
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: also got into, I think, a big issue with where
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the banks were positioning very hard yesterday and pretty much
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: solidified the potential fail of the cloture vote. So we
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: wanted to kind of Get and do a recap on
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: this with Cara Calvert, who is the Vice President for U.S.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Policy over at Coinbase. Nice to have you back, Cara.
• 4:06
  Speaker 7: Thanks so much for having me, Paul. It's been a
• 4:08
  Speaker 7: big week.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have, of course, the Clarity Act absolutely tanking.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Polymarket has this thing at almost, you know, barely on
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: a heartbeat right now. A lot of people still saying
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: that maybe this could get moved into post-COINBASE.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Midterms.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: When you look at that, do you feel like that's
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: even a possibility right now with where Clarity stands today?
• 4:32
  Speaker 7: Well, I love the clip because you talk about the
• 4:34
  Speaker 7: working days of Congress. There are still working days left
• 4:38
  Speaker 7: before the midterms. And Leader Thune came out today and
• 4:42
  Speaker 7: said maybe it had to fail before it passes, similar
• 4:44
  Speaker 7: to what happened with Genius. So I don't think right
• 4:47
  Speaker 7: now the industry is willing to give people a free
• 4:50
  Speaker 7: pass that this won't come back up. Tom Tillis changed
• 4:52
  Speaker 7: his vote. in order to provide for that opportunity. I
• 4:56
  Speaker 7: think a lot of people were preparing for this either
• 4:58
  Speaker 7: passing or failing. I think some of us have long
• 5:00
  Speaker 7: thought we have to keep eking out every opportunity to
• 5:04
  Speaker 7: pass this bill. So there are still days left before
• 5:06
  Speaker 7: the midterms. We are going to keep pushing. After the midterms,
• 5:10
  Speaker 7: that's when we see all the decks get shuffled. It's
• 5:12
  Speaker 7: hard to understand exactly what the political, I think, the
• 5:17
  Speaker 7: intent will be after the election. And so we'll see
• 5:20
  Speaker 7: what happens in the lame duck. But right now, I
• 5:23
  Speaker 7: think the industry still thinks there is an opportunity, at
• 5:26
  Speaker 7: least Coinbase still does. At the same time, you have
• 5:29
  Speaker 7: the regulators ready to go. So in fact, I think
• 5:32
  Speaker 7: that they're going today. So ultimately, we still got time,
• 5:36
  Speaker 7: but it will take a lot of concerted effort to
• 5:38
  Speaker 7: get it across the finish line.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I wanted to go through kind of a list of
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: questions that when we look at, you know, kind of
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: creating an autopsy report around this. One of this, to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: your point right there, could it be revoted on? I
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: think you've answered that in the sense that it's possible
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: even in a lame duck session. And that's assuming that
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: we actually get to potential shifts in Congress, both in
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the House and the Senate, happening here in the midterms.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Within that, has there been any post-backlash right now, especially
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: around flip-flopping by any of the Dems or Republicans?
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Do you know of anything that's happened so far?
• 6:16
  Speaker 7: Well, I think it's very clear at this point that
• 6:21
  Speaker 7: at the end of the day, when the music stopped,
• 6:23
  Speaker 7: the Democrats voted against this bill. I think you saw
• 6:26
  Speaker 7: Elizabeth Warren clearly making this bill all about Donald Trump.
• 6:30
  Speaker 7: Rather than making it about the 650 pages of consumer protections,
• 6:34
  Speaker 7: law enforcement, combating illicit finance, there's.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: Truly a win in there, including for banks.
• 6:40
  Speaker 7: I think at the end of the day, if we're
• 6:42
  Speaker 7: talking about an autopsy, the banks are holding the knife
• 6:45
  Speaker 7: right now. And they absolutely... That is where we saw
• 6:49
  Speaker 7: the Republicans flip. That's where we saw, ultimately, the Democrats
• 6:52
  Speaker 7: hung together pretty well in terms of recognizing that the
• 6:56
  Speaker 7: banks had come to the table, crypto had come to
• 6:58
  Speaker 7: the table, a deal had been made on the issues
• 7:01
  Speaker 7: around interest and yield, but the banks didn't stop. And
• 7:05
  Speaker 7: I think that that just demonstrates that they weren't really
• 7:07
  Speaker 7: there to create a deal. I think that they were
• 7:09
  Speaker 7: there to kill this bill.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this was for sure.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: You look at the crypto lobby right now, possibly retreating
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and focusing on midterms instead. How would that look when
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: you think about focusing on midterms? Because you, as a lobby,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you have been pro this administration. I say you, meaning
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: talking about the lobby itself. How would that look in
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: a post-administration that is going to get a shakeup possibly
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: here in November?
• 7:39
  Speaker 7: Well, I think there are a couple of things still
• 7:40
  Speaker 7: in play. You saw the Ways and Means Committee actually
• 7:43
  Speaker 7: pass a crypto tax bill today. So there are other
• 7:46
  Speaker 7: irons in the fire. We are looking at a number
• 7:49
  Speaker 7: of different issues and we will continue to work on
• 7:51
  Speaker 7: the Clarity Act. That is something we see whether or
• 7:54
  Speaker 7: not it passes in the next 10 days, it passes
• 7:56
  Speaker 7: in lame duck. I've been working on this bill since 2016.
• 7:59
  Speaker 7: We're not going away. The midterms, we've been through midterm
• 8:02
  Speaker 7: shakeups before. This won't be the first time that happens either.
• 8:06
  Speaker 7: And so ultimately, I think we will literally all still
• 8:08
  Speaker 7: be at the table We have a constellation of different
• 8:11
  Speaker 7: political organizations, of grassroots organizations, of companies that have come
• 8:15
  Speaker 7: to the table and really want to be a part
• 8:17
  Speaker 7: of the solution here. It's just it's absolutely mind boggling
• 8:20
  Speaker 7: that you have the party that likes to regulate is
• 8:24
  Speaker 7: the one that's voting against the biggest regulatory regime that's
• 8:27
  Speaker 7: ever been created for either innovation or for financial services.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Well, you could say many people might look at it, well,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: if the Democrats take control of the House and the Senate,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: that they would easily pass this and then claim it
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: as a win for themselves under a regulatory framework. But
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: at the same time, you still have a lot of
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: pressure coming in from the banks. This was our statement
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: here on how many Republicans were actually allowed to vote
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: yes by the banks, because that's what I think happened
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: here is the banks pretty much dictated through their lobby,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: this is the plan. This is what you need to
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: do on the cloture floor. And it showed up because
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: no Democrats and only a handful of Republicans were on
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: the other side of this.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: So with that.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Being the case, do you think the banks could continue
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: to put pressure post midterms?
• 9:16
  Speaker 7: I think the banks will always put pressure. They've historically
• 9:19
  Speaker 7: put pressure on fintech. It has been something I've been
• 9:22
  Speaker 7: working in technology policy for 27 years. And Throughout that process,
• 9:27
  Speaker 7: you have seen banks push back on financial innovation. There
• 9:30
  Speaker 7: are some that really try to adopt it internally, and
• 9:33
  Speaker 7: they invest in it. You see that from some of
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: the largest banks. But they also fearmonger. And that, I think,
• 9:38
  Speaker 7: is something that they're really good at. And frankly, killing
• 9:41
  Speaker 7: legislation is a lot easier than getting everybody lined up
• 9:45
  Speaker 7: and voting for this bill.
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: And so.
• 9:47
  Speaker 7: I think that there are several that are probably popping
• 9:50
  Speaker 7: champagne today because they successfully killed a bill. But ultimately,
• 9:53
  Speaker 7: I think we will continue to work with banks. We
• 9:56
  Speaker 7: will continue to help build their infrastructure and help. with
• 10:00
  Speaker 7: those crypto rails and meeting communities really where they are
• 10:03
  Speaker 7: with community banks, with small banks, with mid-sized banks. I
• 10:06
  Speaker 7: think that we will continue, whether or not this bill passes,
• 10:10
  Speaker 7: these will continue to converge. This is the future of finance.
• 10:13
  Speaker 7: And I think that we'll work together rather than apart.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: So how many, okay, back to my question on the
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: point of how many Republicans were allowed to vote yes.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: What do you think that count was?
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: If there was a count?
• 10:27
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm not sure that there was a count in
• 10:30
  Speaker 7: the sense that banks were dictating to Republicans what they
• 10:33
  Speaker 7: could or couldn't do. I think that the banks successfully
• 10:37
  Speaker 7: pushed out the community banks. Everybody is sympathetic to community banks.
• 10:41
  Speaker 7: And I think that the large banks appropriately weaponized them.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: I think the small banks They care deeply.
• 10:47
  Speaker 7: They actually are nervous about deposit flight. But I don't
• 10:54
  Speaker 7: think that they checked people off and said, all right,
• 10:56
  Speaker 7: you can do this or you can do this.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Does this mean that stablecoin yields can continue being paid
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: to users as it sets right now under Genius?
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 11:07
  Speaker 7: Genius is the law of the land. We pay today
• 11:09
  Speaker 7: just for holding at Coinbase. We will be able to
• 11:11
  Speaker 7: continue to do that. We will be able to do boosts.
• 11:14
  Speaker 7: We will be able to provide those services and products.
• 11:17
  Speaker 7: There will be others that are in this market. This is,
• 11:19
  Speaker 7: I think, the most fascinating part of this is that
• 11:22
  Speaker 7: platforms of all types will now be able to pay
• 11:25
  Speaker 7: people to come to their services and to use those.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: That is exciting.
• 11:28
  Speaker 7: That's competition. That helps cover switching costs. That helps get
• 11:31
  Speaker 7: people excited to try new innovations. So law of the
• 11:35
  Speaker 7: land is genius. We will continue to really lean into that.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: And I hope others do, too.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Kara, do you know of any negotiations in terms of
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: a counteroffer that the Democrats had before the negotiations failed?
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: Well, deadlines always produce action.
• 11:53
  Speaker 7: I think that there was a very clear deadline and
• 11:55
  Speaker 7: people were working up until the very end. I think
• 11:58
  Speaker 7: the challenge is Was there a real offer on the table?
• 12:02
  Speaker 7: Was there a real deal? The counteroffer that came across
• 12:05
  Speaker 7: from Democrats was effectively the counteroffer that came across six
• 12:08
  Speaker 7: weeks ago. So I wouldn't say it was something new
• 12:10
  Speaker 7: or something different. It did not move the needle forward,
• 12:14
  Speaker 7: but they were trying. I think both sides of the
• 12:17
  Speaker 7: aisle were trying to reach a deal. I do think
• 12:19
  Speaker 7: a ton of work has been put in by Democrats,
• 12:22
  Speaker 7: just like Republicans. But again, when the music stopped, Democrats
• 12:26
  Speaker 7: voted against it.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, so here's an angle right here in reference. Should
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: we have called the bluff, and I say the industry,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and given 100% of what they wanted from the ethics side?
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Because remember, Trump could have easily just set pardons up,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: all sorts of things, but given up completely, do you
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: think that really mattered, or was it still a stablecoin
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: yield battle?
• 12:50
  Speaker 7: I think that ultimately the Democrats fall to ethics. I
• 12:53
  Speaker 7: think the politics didn't line up for them. I hope
• 12:55
  Speaker 7: that they actually recognize what a major concession was already
• 13:01
  Speaker 7: in this bill. Their ethics provisions do not apply to
• 13:04
  Speaker 7: the president and the vice president.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: They just don't.
• 13:07
  Speaker 7: It never has for the 250 years that we have
• 13:09
  Speaker 7: been in existence as a country. So the fact that
• 13:11
  Speaker 7: there were new ethics provisions that would apply to the
• 13:14
  Speaker 7: president was monumental. It also had a blind trust or
• 13:18
  Speaker 7: a divestiture. It had a DOJ enforcement and a state
• 13:22
  Speaker 7: AG enforcement. These were things that nobody actually thought was
• 13:26
  Speaker 7: possible even six weeks ago. And then ultimately you have
• 13:30
  Speaker 7: not just one, but two deals on the table on ethics.
• 13:33
  Speaker 7: And again, whether or not you give 100%, I don't
• 13:37
  Speaker 7: know if that still would have had Democrats voting against
• 13:41
  Speaker 7: this bill. I think that that is unpredictable, but what
• 13:44
  Speaker 7: I hope is that over the next eight days that
• 13:48
  Speaker 7: Democrats and Republicans recognize that the rest of this bill
• 13:52
  Speaker 7: also is a consumer protection bill.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: It has disclosure requirements.
• 13:55
  Speaker 7: The president and any of those crypto businesses would be
• 13:58
  Speaker 7: under the same obligations to disclose really important information. So
• 14:02
  Speaker 7: there are other parts of the bill that would help
• 14:05
  Speaker 7: and make sure that we're all playing by the same rules.
• 14:07
  Speaker 7: And I think that that all just got lost in
• 14:08
  Speaker 7: the politics.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: So with all that being lost in the politics, do
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you think Coinbase should have just let Clarity ban stablecoin
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: yields themselves as a, you know, passive, I think was
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: kind of the scenario that played into this.
• 14:24
  Speaker 7: I don't think that there's any environment in which we
• 14:26
  Speaker 7: would have just agreed to banning yield. That is to us,
• 14:29
  Speaker 7: that is just antithetical to the whole concept of competition
• 14:33
  Speaker 7: and moving innovation into the financial system. And the fact
• 14:36
  Speaker 7: that we would just agree to something that is so
• 14:38
  Speaker 7: blatantly anti-competitive, I don't see that happening now. I don't
• 14:42
  Speaker 7: see that happening six months ago or six months in
• 14:44
  Speaker 7: the future. So this is something that we feel passionately about.
• 14:47
  Speaker 7: It protects consumers, it allows them to compete, it allows
• 14:50
  Speaker 7: them to keep more of their money. So ultimately, we
• 14:52
  Speaker 7: think that this is what was right for America, and
• 14:54
  Speaker 7: I don't see that changing anytime soon.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: When you look at stablecoin yield and you look at
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: ethics on two sides of the coin, Coinbase has always
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: been in a position of defend, defend, defend to retain
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: stablecoin yields. But in reality, you're kind of saying that
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: it was more on the ethics issue When in reality,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: we look at it and say that the banks really
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: were in control here and they wanted this stablecoin issue
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: addressed and ethics weren't really part of that. Is that
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: just Coinbase pushing off to say ethics was the reason
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: this thing didn't get through?
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: As opposed to pushback?
• 15:32
  Speaker 7: Yeah, the yield, it certainly had an impact. And I
• 15:35
  Speaker 7: think the banks, what the banks... provided was uncertainty. They
• 15:40
  Speaker 7: sowed enough doubt in people's minds that this bill wasn't
• 15:43
  Speaker 7: going to happen. And it really, I think, delayed the process.
• 15:46
  Speaker 7: So a lot of this could have actually been addressed
• 15:50
  Speaker 7: over the course of the last eight months. But the
• 15:51
  Speaker 7: banks successfully stalled and stalled and stalled and stalled. And consistently,
• 15:56
  Speaker 7: you notice they never actually opposed the bill. They just
• 15:59
  Speaker 7: kept saying, we want changes, we want changes. But they
• 16:01
  Speaker 7: were asking people to vote against it. So they were
• 16:04
  Speaker 7: actually asking people to kill this bill, even though they
• 16:06
  Speaker 7: weren't saying it publicly. So that, I think, was the challenge.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: And you're right.
• 16:10
  Speaker 7: The banks absolutely were responsible for some of these votes
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: going against this bill. And, you know, some might say
• 16:16
  Speaker 7: that it didn't have enough consumer protection or some might
• 16:18
  Speaker 7: say that it didn't have enough law enforcement or some
• 16:20
  Speaker 7: might say that it was all about ethics. At the
• 16:22
  Speaker 7: end of the day, what we have now is the
• 16:24
  Speaker 7: status quo. We can pay stable coin yield. We are
• 16:28
  Speaker 7: regulated at the state level. We have a plethora now
• 16:32
  Speaker 7: of regulators, a patchwork with different consumer protections. Local law
• 16:36
  Speaker 7: enforcement does not have the tools that this bill provided.
• 16:39
  Speaker 7: The Treasury Department does not have the new authorities to
• 16:41
  Speaker 7: go after bad actors. We don't have developer protections. So ultimately, again,
• 16:46
  Speaker 7: they made a decision for whatever reason it was, because
• 16:50
  Speaker 7: something wasn't enough, when ultimately it's way better than the
• 16:53
  Speaker 7: status quo.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, so this was, why is the Senate listening to
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the Indian game tribes? Because this was brought out during this.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: What do you think was behind this?
• 17:06
  Speaker 7: This really has to do with prediction markets. And because
• 17:10
  Speaker 7: the CFTC has authority over prediction markets and the tribes
• 17:15
  Speaker 7: don't like prediction markets, they've used this as a vehicle
• 17:19
  Speaker 7: to try to ban prediction markets or sports contracts. That
• 17:23
  Speaker 7: was their nexus to this bill. And what they said
• 17:26
  Speaker 7: is this bill has not only CFTC authority, but it
• 17:30
  Speaker 7: may have the ability to use it as a loophole
• 17:32
  Speaker 7: with these developer protections or DeFi. That was just blatantly
• 17:36
  Speaker 7: not the case. The newest changes to the bill were
• 17:39
  Speaker 7: very specific that any developer protections were just for the
• 17:42
  Speaker 7: spot market. And the tribes still said that they oppose this.
• 17:45
  Speaker 7: And I think it comes back to they saw a hook,
• 17:49
  Speaker 7: kind of like the banks here. They saw a hook.
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: Genius.
• 17:51
  Speaker 7: We should not have been addressing a genius provision in
• 17:53
  Speaker 7: this market structure bill. So the same way the bank
• 17:56
  Speaker 7: saw a hook, the tribe saw a hook, and they
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: really wanted to go after it.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Take all prisoners. All right.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Why wasn't the SEC and the CFTC ready to go
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: with a substantial update today? Because they kind of probably
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: had an indication that this was.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Going to happen.
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: I think they are.
• 18:14
  Speaker 7: I think you saw Chairman Seelig come out and say,
• 18:17
  Speaker 7: we're ready to roll. Chairman Atkins has the innovation exemption ready. Remember,
• 18:22
  Speaker 7: he didn't wait. He actually went two weeks ago with
• 18:24
  Speaker 7: Red Crypto. I think Chairman Seelig is in the exact
• 18:27
  Speaker 7: same position of ready to go and ready to release these.
• 18:30
  Speaker 7: They did want to make sure that the Clarity Act
• 18:32
  Speaker 7: had its day in the sun and actually got a
• 18:34
  Speaker 7: vote in order to make sure that these regulations could
• 18:38
  Speaker 7: work with clarity, not against clarity. With clarity now on
• 18:42
  Speaker 7: really on life support, I think as what was said earlier,
• 18:45
  Speaker 7: barely a heartbeat, I think that they realize we can't wait.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: We can't wait on Congress anymore. It's just too unpredictable.
• 18:52
  Speaker 7: Congress has a track record of not necessarily always getting
• 18:55
  Speaker 7: things done. And I think that they are ready to
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: go and you're going to see those start to roll out.
• 18:58
  Speaker 7: And we're very excited about that. We actually think that
• 19:01
  Speaker 7: we have always had, we've always thought about this as
• 19:03
  Speaker 7: phase one is legislation, phase two is regulation. We are
• 19:06
  Speaker 7: squarely into phase two now, and we can achieve a
• 19:09
  Speaker 7: lot of the same things. The only thing I think
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: that we don't have is truly like the crystal clear
• 19:17
  Speaker 7: clarity on what is a security and what is a commodity.
• 19:19
  Speaker 7: But a lot of that can be done through regulation.
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: So I think that we're going to be in a
• 19:22
  Speaker 7: good place. There just won't be a lot to cement it.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Okay. So there's a lot of things you can look at.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Now, granted, I will agree with you that this CFTC
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: and this SEC may be different than previous administration bureaucratic organizations.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: But if you look at this right now, TradFi incumbents
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: could end up dominating this policy even more than they
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: did with Coinbase with Congress. So what do you say
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: to that?
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Do you think that TradFi is going to end up
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: dominating this policy?
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: TradFi is important.
• 19:55
  Speaker 7: They have been longtime incumbents in these agencies and these organizations.
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: They have a lot of friends. They can make a
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: lot of phone calls.
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: But we do have a different environment right now, especially
• 20:06
  Speaker 7: with President Trump. And the blueprint for crypto that they
• 20:09
  Speaker 7: created over a year ago now, they do have a
• 20:12
  Speaker 7: whole of government approach. And I think at the end
• 20:14
  Speaker 7: of their term, they are going to be looking at
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: what they succeeded in doing. And this is a core
• 20:19
  Speaker 7: part of those rules. So I think it's absolutely possible
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: that TradFi will continue to interject and continue to potentially
• 20:26
  Speaker 7: throw sand in the gears. But most of these traditional
• 20:29
  Speaker 7: finance companies are actually investing in They're looking at tokenized equities.
• 20:33
  Speaker 7: They're looking at perpetual futures. They're looking at even prediction markets, right?
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: These traditional financial companies are jumping in to crypto.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: And that, I think, is what's going to help move
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: this along.
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: So this was an angle that we looked at months
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and months ago, and that was who could we sway,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: being the industry. You look at progressive Democrats, in our opinion,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: could have been easier to win over than the establishment Democrats, right?
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: who obviously rely on the banking industry as established donors,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: and that means lobbying, usually votes. Do you think the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: industry made a mistake not going after the progressive Democrats
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: to try to win?
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: We did.
• 21:14
  Speaker 7: So I think that, I think progressive Democrats, there are some,
• 21:18
  Speaker 7: there are some advocates inside the progressive wing of the
• 21:20
  Speaker 7: party for crypto. They recognize why this is good for access,
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: why this is good for communities of color in particular,
• 21:26
  Speaker 7: and we see that in the numbers of users. There
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: are many that recognize that actually things like Bitcoin mortgages
• 21:33
  Speaker 7: are good for people. And so there are a lot
• 21:36
  Speaker 7: of progressive members who actually are pretty supportive. The reality, though,
• 21:41
  Speaker 7: is you have Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who are
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: constantly still still after years trying to build an anti-crypto
• 21:48
  Speaker 7: army and they're they're being successful. So I think that
• 21:51
  Speaker 7: we shouldn't underplay how Elizabeth Warren and now particularly with
• 21:57
  Speaker 7: the rise of the Democratic Socialist Party and what they're doing,
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: I think that Elizabeth Warren is doing her best to
• 22:05
  Speaker 7: bring in a new crop of haters.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, no doubt.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I think she's going to succeed at that as well
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: because we've got a few new people that are heading
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: that way to kind of fall in the ranks. Do
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: you think it's already too late for Coinbase to affect
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: midterms in any significant way?
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Could we get to a.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Point where the war chest could actually do something? Because
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: right now it seems like this would not be the case.
• 22:29
  Speaker 7: Well, the political spending, for most of the politicos out there,
• 22:33
  Speaker 7: it's usually people don't start paying attention to elections until
• 22:38
  Speaker 7: after Labor Day. So we are squarely within the window
• 22:41
  Speaker 7: of influencing voters, influencing elections, having digital ads out. We
• 22:46
  Speaker 7: are in the window. There are seven weeks out to
• 22:48
  Speaker 7: the election, I believe, seven or eight weeks out at
• 22:50
  Speaker 7: this point, There is a lot of time to sway opinions.
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: The other part I would mention is that Stan with
• 22:55
  Speaker 7: Crypto has nearly 3.5 million advocates, and those are all voters.
• 22:59
  Speaker 7: They're all looking at today. They are all looking at
• 23:01
  Speaker 7: the scorecard for these people who voted against this bill.
• 23:05
  Speaker 7: And remember, in the House, 78 Democrats voted for this
• 23:07
  Speaker 7: and almost all Republicans. So it's not again, it's not
• 23:10
  Speaker 7: squarely a political party issue at this point. These people
• 23:14
  Speaker 7: are independent thinkers. They want to know who is supporting
• 23:17
  Speaker 7: crypto because that influences their economic decisions every day. So
• 23:22
  Speaker 7: they're going to be looking. The advocates are going to
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: come out.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: They are voters.
• 23:25
  Speaker 7: They are going to vote the way they think that
• 23:27
  Speaker 7: benefits them economically. And that means being pro-crypto. Spending, you know,
• 23:32
  Speaker 7: Fair Shake is an independent organization. They are going to
• 23:34
  Speaker 7: make their decisions on when and how to spend. But
• 23:37
  Speaker 7: their mission has always been to elect pro-crypto candidates. And
• 23:40
  Speaker 7: I think it's clear there are certain metrics that you
• 23:42
  Speaker 7: make a decision on if somebody is pro-crypto or not.
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: And, you know, we had a pretty important week.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, with all of that, I mean, if you go,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: we ran the names and numbers of all of the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Democrats that voted no. If you look at that group,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: very few of those are in a position where they're
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: out there trying to earn their seat again. So you
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: don't have a real strong position in terms of primarying
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: any of these. So it really boils down to any
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: new incumbents, or I should say new senators that could
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: be coming and becoming a senator that you're trying to.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Sway right now.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: These could be people that have never voted on a
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: bill before. So when you look at the PR side
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: of things, do you think Brian should have come in
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: and just said, no, this needs to be wartime mode
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: after Diamond did his number?
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Instead of playing nice. I mean, come on. He should
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: have put the gloves on.
• 24:39
  Speaker 7: You know, I think that it's an interesting question. We
• 24:42
  Speaker 7: are partners with banks. We work We work with JP Morgan.
• 24:46
  Speaker 7: It was pretty stunning that he was so bombastic and personal, frankly.
• 24:51
  Speaker 7: This was very much, I think, a manifestation of the Washington, D.C.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: Trades.
• 24:57
  Speaker 7: And I think there was a lot of misinformation spread,
• 24:59
  Speaker 7: particularly by the ABA. The ICBA, the independent community bankers,
• 25:04
  Speaker 7: I think did not. You're seeing it play out on
• 25:06
  Speaker 7: Twitter where you actually have some of these bankers saying, wait,
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: I was never actually consulted. And I would have been
• 25:12
  Speaker 7: happy to be in a room as a CEO. I
• 25:14
  Speaker 7: would have been happy to be there and have a negotiation.
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: Not a single bank CEO showed up to have these negotiations.
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: Not even a single bank trade CEO showed up to
• 25:23
  Speaker 7: have these conversations. So I think it was pretty hard
• 25:27
  Speaker 7: to understand. And even to take it into a PR war,
• 25:29
  Speaker 7: it ultimately came, you know, it played out in Washington,
• 25:33
  Speaker 7: I thought. And then, you know, he took it to primetime. Yeah.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it was prime time.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: And it made a lot of, I think a lot
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of people understand really where this.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Boiled down to.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: But the banks were in unison, which is kind of
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: my next question is, why didn't the crypto industry become unified?
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Whether it was Ripple, you look at Circle, a handful
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: of others out there that really should have been on
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: the camp with Coinbase and united much faster after we
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: kind of saw the industry pause a little bit. to
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: try to negotiate? Why didn't we create a consortium to
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: really get at this?
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: There was actually a consortium that came together on the
• 26:13
  Speaker 7: crypto side. And that I think was really important because
• 26:16
  Speaker 7: it was very much about new payment rails. So there
• 26:19
  Speaker 7: were companies that cared deeply about this that did help
• 26:22
  Speaker 7: actually ensure that we reached a compromise that allowed for
• 26:25
  Speaker 7: activity-based rewards. And you can see that breadth of activities
• 26:29
  Speaker 7: that were very clearly enumerated in the legislation demonstrated the
• 26:34
  Speaker 7: different business models and people who want, I mean, everything to,
• 26:37
  Speaker 7: I mean, there were conversations about Starbucks points and what
• 26:41
  Speaker 7: the banks wanted. Starbucks would not have been allowed to
• 26:43
  Speaker 7: have a point system if they used any kind of
• 26:46
  Speaker 7: stable coin.
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: That's insane.
• 26:48
  Speaker 7: And so there were a lot of people in the room.
• 26:51
  Speaker 7: We had our own trade associations come together. You could
• 26:54
  Speaker 7: see Summer Mersinger with the Blockchain Association and G Kim
• 26:57
  Speaker 7: with CCI, the Crypto Council for Innovation. They were tremendous.
• 27:01
  Speaker 7: You had Cody Carbone also from the Digital Chamber. There
• 27:04
  Speaker 7: were really important, I think, trade association efforts. We had
• 27:08
  Speaker 7: hundreds of thousands of advocates and voters reach out to
• 27:11
  Speaker 7: the Senate. In fact, I think close to a million
• 27:14
  Speaker 7: different Americans actually contacted the Senate to say, keep my rewards,
• 27:19
  Speaker 7: pass clarity. So we did build, I think, a very,
• 27:22
  Speaker 7: very important alliance and coalition to push back on the banks.
• 27:26
  Speaker 7: And ultimately, just to be clear, The banks, and this
• 27:29
  Speaker 7: bill may have failed, but there was a viable path
• 27:34
  Speaker 7: forward on rewards. And there were enough people that came
• 27:37
  Speaker 7: together on the rewards product, on that agreement, because people
• 27:42
  Speaker 7: actually believe that there should be competition.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Well, I think people believed it. The problem is that
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: our congresspeople didn't believe it. So they themselves kind of
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: put us in a position here. This is a political
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: position right now that we're looking at. And when we
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: analyze this, we boil it down to something that's going
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: on right now in the meme coins.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: And of course, that's laptop.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: You've got laptop out there with Biden launches a couple
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: of days before we've seen him on with the roll
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: up guys. He's doing his podcast rounds and essentially saying
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: this is a bipartisan rug pull. Essentially, if you want
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: to call a meme coin, that's exactly what they are.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: But the point is, is that it gets into a scenario.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: where it could put centralized exchanges and any crypto company
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: in the crosshairs of the Democrats. So now you're in
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: a position, why not be able to play both sides
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: of the plate here, knowing that we may risk having
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: the Democrats in control come November and, you know, Give
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: equal listing, as they say.
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: No, it's a great question.
• 28:49
  Speaker 7: And ultimately, the decision to list or not list laptop
• 28:52
  Speaker 7: was not a political decision. And it goes back, though,
• 28:55
  Speaker 7: I would just highlight one of the really important parts
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: of the Clarity Act was actually transparency in listing decisions.
• 29:03
  Speaker 7: And we try to be very transparent. You can see
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: exactly what we require for listing. We have to make
• 29:08
  Speaker 7: sure it's not a security. There's no fraud. make sure
• 29:11
  Speaker 7: that it's not high risk. There are a number of
• 29:12
  Speaker 7: different things. We're very transparent about our website. One of
• 29:16
  Speaker 7: the things that this bill would have done was create
• 29:18
  Speaker 7: that same type of transparency for every actor in the system.
• 29:22
  Speaker 7: And we actually thought that that was really important. And
• 29:25
  Speaker 7: all of the different characteristics of the token itself would
• 29:28
  Speaker 7: have to be disclosed. So we think that the Clarity
• 29:31
  Speaker 7: Act actually would have put everybody on equal footing. But again,
• 29:34
  Speaker 7: one listing decision or another that I wasn't a part
• 29:37
  Speaker 7: of that decision.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I want to go to this because this is something
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: we're out there covering stories. We're trying to figure out,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: do we go on onshoring and innovation as our messaging,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: or do we go and fall back to fear and corruption? Essentially,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: that's where the banks have positioned us, I think, in general.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Going forward, do you think we just need to look
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: at fear and corruption as the campaign going forward? Because
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: it didn't seem like onshoring and innovation worked out so well.
• 30:08
  Speaker 7: Well, I think the actual real fear here is competition
• 30:13
  Speaker 7: from China, is competition from other. And I think that
• 30:16
  Speaker 7: that does resonate. And when we think about the power
• 30:20
  Speaker 7: of the dollar and making sure that the dollar remains
• 30:24
  Speaker 7: the reserve currency of the world, remember, the digital yuan
• 30:27
  Speaker 7: actually pays interest. So they are literally paying people to
• 30:31
  Speaker 7: use their central bank digital currency. And here we're having
• 30:35
  Speaker 7: a fight over three and a half percent in rewards
• 30:38
  Speaker 7: paid to a very small group of people for these
• 30:41
  Speaker 7: new types of innovations. It is really mind boggling when
• 30:45
  Speaker 7: you look at it from the global context. So I
• 30:48
  Speaker 7: think that issue around fear I do think we have
• 30:51
  Speaker 7: a part of that as the industry. I also think
• 30:53
  Speaker 7: we saw the fact that people left under the Biden administration.
• 30:57
  Speaker 7: This industry left. That is where you saw the rise
• 31:00
  Speaker 7: of Abu Dhabi and of Singapore and of even France, right?
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: We have the EU that is ahead. So I think
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: over the.
• 31:07
  Speaker 7: Next two years, it will be really important for rules
• 31:10
  Speaker 7: to get in place that ensure that we can continue
• 31:13
  Speaker 7: to compete globally. And then Congress, whether or not they
• 31:17
  Speaker 7: can come back to the table and get this done,
• 31:19
  Speaker 7: I find I have a lot of skepticism that they
• 31:22
  Speaker 7: will be able to do this next year. But I
• 31:24
  Speaker 7: think we've got a few more days in this session
• 31:26
  Speaker 7: and maybe the lame duck.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: So that brings me to the potential for compromises, because
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: after the House vote, our opinion is that there should
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: have just been no compromises. But instead, I think the
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: industry tried to play nice and we kind of got
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: slapped down for that. Do you think going forward, we
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: just simply draw a line in the sand?
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Sorry, this is the way it's going to be.
• 31:51
  Speaker 7: I think that we are very close to that point.
• 31:55
  Speaker 7: I would say the bill that came out really pushed
• 31:59
  Speaker 7: every part of the industry to their breaking point. And
• 32:03
  Speaker 7: things like rewards is a good example. We are on
• 32:06
  Speaker 7: knife's edge. And the circuit breaker that they added at
• 32:10
  Speaker 7: the very last minute, again, that opens it up for
• 32:13
  Speaker 7: new mischief. Ultimately, that was the price, and that's what
• 32:17
  Speaker 7: they decided to put in there. We were not going
• 32:20
  Speaker 7: to oppose... the rest of this bill over that circuit
• 32:23
  Speaker 7: breaker language, but we are on knife's edge. I think
• 32:26
  Speaker 7: that that is the same for the developers, for the
• 32:28
  Speaker 7: DeFi community. I think that that's the same for other,
• 32:31
  Speaker 7: for venture capital firms, for other parts of the ecosystem,
• 32:35
  Speaker 7: the issuers, everybody is on knife's edge and whether or
• 32:39
  Speaker 7: not we can, you know, if there are, I think
• 32:41
  Speaker 7: the other two issues that were hanging out there were
• 32:43
  Speaker 7: related to some of the issues in the AG bill
• 32:46
  Speaker 7: and to the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, again, on knife's edge.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: So could there be a compromise here? Sure. Do people
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: need to come back to the table? Absolutely. Do we
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: think that we can get this done?
• 33:00
  Speaker 7: If we have, I think, good faith actors who want
• 33:03
  Speaker 7: to come back to the table, then yeah, I think
• 33:05
  Speaker 7: we could get this done. But there's not a whole
• 33:07
  Speaker 7: lot of give left in this process.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: All right, you mentioned a little bit about the tax
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: bill that's going to essentially make its way in, which
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: is now being superseded, I guess, because prior to Clarity
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: ever getting done. And there's a lot of things that
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: we'll do a video on that, guys. But now that
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Clarity has failed, why would Coinbase not just go in
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: and rebrand Coinbase wallet to Coinbase? Because you're going to
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: see most everybody go into Coinbase wallet. I would think
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: right now, especially with Clarity having no Clarity at all.
• 33:41
  Speaker 7: Well, I think we still, again, we are already highly regulated.
• 33:45
  Speaker 7: We have 45 state regulators. We are regulated at the
• 33:48
  Speaker 7: SEC and the CFTC today. We're regulated at FinCEN and OFAC,
• 33:52
  Speaker 7: which are the two treasury organizations that manage the illicit
• 33:56
  Speaker 7: finance obligations. So we have a lot of regulations already
• 34:00
  Speaker 7: in place. We have to work with state regulators. We
• 34:03
  Speaker 7: have a lot of work with the New York Department
• 34:05
  Speaker 7: of Financial Services. And now California has a new law
• 34:08
  Speaker 7: on the books. Illinois is coming online. There's legislation out there.
• 34:12
  Speaker 7: So we will be really busy at the state level,
• 34:15
  Speaker 7: making sure that we still meet the obligations that we
• 34:17
  Speaker 7: need to across the country. So whether or not we
• 34:20
  Speaker 7: have some activity going through wallet or through our custodial app,
• 34:24
  Speaker 7: the custodial app is a very important place where people
• 34:27
  Speaker 7: still come, whether you're brand new to crypto or you're
• 34:29
  Speaker 7: a sophisticated trader using Prime. It is still, I think,
• 34:33
  Speaker 7: it's the most trusted on-ramp for crypto in America.
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: And we don't want to jeopardize that.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: 50% of our audience is in 180 different countries. We're
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: one of the largest crypto and finance channels out there.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: So for us to see that much of an audience
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: means this is a global effort going forward. So Coinbase
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: obviously is a part of that. So I think the
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: wallet is going to be exploding now with these opportunities
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: in terms of all these additional traders worldwide.
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 35:08
  Speaker 7: And we are building globally. We just launched tokenized equities overseas.
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: Again, we are meeting customers where they are.
• 35:15
  Speaker 7: Coinbase Wallet is an excellent on-ramp and an excellent entry
• 35:19
  Speaker 7: point into the digital asset space.
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: We will continue to see growth there.
• 35:23
  Speaker 7: We will continue to work with regulators internationally, and we
• 35:27
  Speaker 7: will seek licenses where we need them. We will offer
• 35:30
  Speaker 7: opportunities to enter into decentralized finance through DeFi, through different integrations.
• 35:36
  Speaker 7: So we're really excited about everything that's happening in both
• 35:39
  Speaker 7: the custodial and the non-custodial wallet. For us, as a
• 35:42
  Speaker 7: policy matter, we have been absolutely rigid in our support
• 35:46
  Speaker 7: and I think our advocacy for being able to maintain
• 35:49
  Speaker 7: self-hosted wallets and having that autonomy over what you own
• 35:53
  Speaker 7: and how you manage your money. So we are doing
• 35:55
  Speaker 7: that globally and we will continue to do that from
• 35:57
  Speaker 7: a policy landscape. And then competition, again, it will continue
• 36:00
  Speaker 7: to evolve and innovate. And that's where I think we
• 36:03
  Speaker 7: will meet customers where they are.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: How do you think the industry is going to respond
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: to the Ways and Means Committee on the digital asset
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: tax clarity issue? Do you think this is going to
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: be something that could really, because this is going to
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: hit wash trades. This is going to deal with all
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: sorts of issues in terms of capital gains on certain assets.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, there is a lot. We'll do a video
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: on this, guys, for you. But how do you think
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: the industry is going to respond to this?
• 36:29
  Speaker 7: So one of the biggest concerns we hear from our customers,
• 36:35
  Speaker 7: be it big or small, institutional, everyday Americans, is they
• 36:39
  Speaker 7: don't understand tax treatment today. It is a major concern.
• 36:42
  Speaker 7: Since the broker rules rolled out earlier this year, and
• 36:45
  Speaker 7: that was something Congress did back in 2021, where they
• 36:48
  Speaker 7: mandated that all brokers provide 1099s to their users. That,
• 36:54
  Speaker 7: my tax forms alone, because it now captures every single
• 36:57
  Speaker 7: time you make a transaction with stablecoins. Every time you
• 37:00
  Speaker 7: make a trade, anytime you do anything is a taxable event.
• 37:03
  Speaker 7: And so everyday Americans who look at their tax forms
• 37:06
  Speaker 7: and say, you know what, why would I even mess
• 37:08
  Speaker 7: with stable coins if I have to report every single
• 37:11
  Speaker 7: cup of coffee to the IRS? Our numbers went up
• 37:14
  Speaker 7: by 30% in terms of people needing help with their taxes.
• 37:17
  Speaker 7: So it is a very real impact for the users.
• 37:20
  Speaker 7: I think for companies, again, the IRS already requires people
• 37:25
  Speaker 7: to comply with these laws.
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: They're just people just don't know how to apply them.
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: So what this.
• 37:30
  Speaker 7: Bill does is it does create new things like staking.
• 37:34
  Speaker 7: It addresses staking. How and when do you recognize income
• 37:37
  Speaker 7: with staking? It addresses that. It addresses charitable contributions. It
• 37:40
  Speaker 7: addresses a number of issues. It does include wash trading,
• 37:43
  Speaker 7: but that is an important part of our traditional tax system.
• 37:47
  Speaker 7: So what this bill really does is try to strike
• 37:49
  Speaker 7: parity with traditional tax requirements.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: All right, Kara.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, we're going to watch very closely because there's
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: going to be a lot coming down, I think, from
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: the SEC and the CFTC that hopefully will guide this industry.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: Love to get your opinion on that once we start
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: to see some of that direction. So thanks for coming
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: in today. We appreciate it.
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. Anytime. We're excited about the future.
• 38:10
  Speaker 7: Today was a setback or yesterday was a setback, but
• 38:12
  Speaker 7: that does not mean that we are slowing down.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: If you like this video, hit like and subscribe, drop
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: a comment down below, and also join our free private
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: member group.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: The link is in the description.