Latest / The Paul Barron Crypto Show / Crypto Election Race️‍🔥Blockchain Association | CEO INTERVIEW

Transcript

Crypto Election Race️‍🔥Blockchain Association | CEO INTERVIEW · The Paul Barron Crypto Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: My name is Paul Barre. Welcome back in the tech path. Listen.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: If you guys are a brand new to crypto, and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: by the way, there's a lot of new investors coming
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: into crypto right now. One of the things you're gonna
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: need is in exchange, and one of the places to
• 0:17
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• 0:19
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• 0:23
  Speaker 1: of the best places out there in terms of businesses
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and also individuals doing buying and selling of crypto. Very
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: easy to enroll and get started over there at coinbase.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Think of it as an extension of your own bank accounts.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Very simple. Use our link down below. It's going to
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: get you two hundred bucks in crypto to get started
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and get out there. Listen, we've got Kristin Smith on
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: who's the CEO of the Blockchain Association today and we're
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: just going to dive into it with Kristin. How are you.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I'm fantastic, Paul, it's great to be here today.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Listen. We always have Ron Hammond on, we've got some
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: of your team. He's always great. But I'm so happy
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: you had a chance to join us today and I
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: want to get into a few things here. First, of course,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: is the political report that was just recently published here,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: wave of crypto friendly lawmakers now about to crash Congress.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: We've been watching this fairly intensely over the last two years.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: We do a lot of videos on what's happening in
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: DC and of course covering a lot of the solutions
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that you guys are going for. When you look at
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: this right now, Kristin, and you consider a lot of
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the votes that have gone through on many of these
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: bills that have been able to squeeze through the House,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: some who are being president and presented over to the Senate,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: what does it look like right now in terms of
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: how many House seats and senators that we would have
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to flip to see more potential opportunity in crypto.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, as you're just saying, even within the
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Congress we have today, we have a growing bipartisan group
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: of lawmakers who have voted in favor of crypto legislation.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: So we have a good start this Congress. But I
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: think next Congress is going to get even better. You know,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: the political report was talking about the Fair Shake super
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: pac which has supported a lot of candidates at the
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: primary stage now in the general election, and it's a
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: pretty unprecedented for an industry to do something like this,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: But this has all been done in an incredibly transparent way.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: I always like to point out I don't control this
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: the fair shape superPAC that is a separate organization, But
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: you know, I certainly feel like I'm going to be
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: the beneficiary of it, because for those of us who
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: are on the ground in Washington working to talk to policymakers,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I think when we show up in January, we're going
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: to find a lot better reception than we have over
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: the past couple of years. And so I really do
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: feel like we've turned the corner as an industry. We've
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: caught the attention of Washington. They're taking us seriously, and
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: people want to work with us to make sure that
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: we get the right kind of regulatory outcomes that we need.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Well, I think the key here has been you look
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: at some of the lawmakers, a lot of which I
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: feel like are you know, you think about Richie Torres
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and you see kind of the performance of what we
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: see out of Patrick McHenry and Tom Emmer and many others.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: But you start to see this shift of a bipartisan
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: approach toward this particular topic, and it's one of the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: few that has been able to do that. Of course,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: that all hasven kind of been paved the way. I
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: was looking back to the report here crypto currency interests
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: have spent on elections what they've spent elections in the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: majority of states this year. And you can see obviously
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Ohio right now. We spent a lot up there with
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Gerard Brown. And you look at some of these like
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Texas and all up and down the coast here. So
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of the programs really supporting these super PACs,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: really supporting the idea around crypto as a whole. And
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: if you look at the states, obviously with Florida where
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: we are based, we've got some pro lawmakers for crypto.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Are there any areas in the country right now that
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: you are most concerned about from a legislative standpoint that
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: really needs some support maybe from our listeners and viewers
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: to just go out and reach out to people.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, Listen, I think any congressional district or any
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: of the states where there's a Senate race, I think
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: it's important to reach out to candidates and let them
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: know what's going on. If you go to stand with
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: crypto dot org. That's an organization that helps facilitate individuals
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: to reach out to their policy makers and their candidates,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: and they have a scorecard system where you can see
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: if somebody is pro crypto or not. And so I
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: don't think there's any one state in particular that's most important.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: I do think, you know, if you sort of look
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: at the map, Ohio is one where the super pac
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: has put a big investment. And Senator Brown is currently
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and you know,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: he has been you know, less than favorable to the industry.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: And so I think bringing in, you know, Bernie Marino,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: who is running against Jared Brown, would be a very
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: interesting change in Ohio because you know, he has been
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: a blockchain entrepreneur himself, and so to be able to
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: swap out, you know, somebody who's been hostile with somebody
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: who understands the space would be very helpful. But we
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: really are seeing on both sides of the aisle and
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: all across the country from you know, Florida all the
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: way over to Alaska, and why we're seeing a lot
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: of interest and and I think that's gonna mean that
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: we'll have just a much more educated set of lawmakers.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: You know, this is obviously a complicated space. It's a
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: complicated technology. It's not something you can just go have
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: one meeting on and people understand. It takes you know,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: years of conversations to get to the point where where
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: people feel educated. And so we want to continue working
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: with Congress to help them understand what what the issues are,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: what the gaps are in the laws today, and and
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: why you know, Congress sans to act to fill in
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: you not to give the industry a pass, but to
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: actually put in a framework that makes sense for the
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: industry and make consumers and institutional investors feel like this
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: is a safe place where they can come participate in
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: the markets.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Both candidates, of course, for the presidency, Trump has come
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: out pretty consistent with his plan of not accepting crypto
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: as a country but starting to get very aggressive on
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: getting pro crypto positions. Kamala Harris, her position has been
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: a little bit more loose, though she has started to
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: mention blockchain and crypto in some of the guidance that
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: she's starting to apply. If you look at the two
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: candidates right now, I'm not asking you to select one,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: but if you think which one has a stronger position
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: for any voter out there that is maybe a single
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: issue voter on crypto alone, Do you feel that either
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: candidate has an edge right now?
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I mean, I think it's it's safe
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: to say President Trump clearly how a much more sophisticated
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: and in depth policy position than Harris at this time.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: It doesn't mean Harris isn't going to get there, but
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: you know, Trump has been engaging with individuals and executives
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: and CEOs in the industry for several years now, and
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: this spring when he really started to talk about it publicly,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: I think he was very surprised by the reception he got.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: People were very excited. You know. He went down to
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: the quin Nashville and spoke there, and he talked about
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: firing Gary Gensler on day one, and he got such
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: a strong response that he said it again because he
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: had never seen anybody so upset at a federal regulator before.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, I think it's very clear that
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: he is all in. He wants to keep this industry here.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: You know, Harris came to the race obviously much very
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: late in the game. Right She's probably got one of
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: the shortest presidential campaigns in history, if not the shortest,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: and so it's a little bit challenging for her to
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: have in depth policy positions on so many issues in
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: such a truncated amount of time. So it's understandable that
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: she has not yet gotten into specifics. But I do
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: think it's very encouraging that she's started dipping her toe
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: in the water. Right She's mentioned it in a couple
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: of policy documents, she's mentioned it in some speeches that
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: you know, this is something that that is a priority
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: at you know, a very high level. But that's how
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: it starts, right Like Trump didn't jump in with a
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: multipoint plan on what to do for the crypto industry
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: on day one, and so I think, you know, we
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: need to give Harris some space and to come up
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: with that. I don't think we're going to see a
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: whole lot of in depth in the next two weeks
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: before the election, but I do think, you know, if
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: she does win, that we can continue to work with her.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: I think most importantly, as we were just talking about
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Democrats in Congress, maybe with the exception of Elizabeth Warren,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: who is now incredibly isolated in her thinking towards crypto.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Democrats in Congress want to see this industry thrive, and
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: I don't think that Harris is going to step in
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: the step in the way of that. You know, she
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: may not be may not be her top priority if
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: she wins, but it certainly I don't think she's going
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: to be a barrier to getting new legislation passed. And
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: so I really do think in some ways we've already won,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: right Like we've we've caught the attention of key policymakers
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: and you know, they're willing to engage with the industry
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: and try to figure out how to move forward, and
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: we just need to continue to do that in a
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: in a thoughtful and constructive way.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: We had John Deeton on here just this last week.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Obviously he's in the Senate race right now. They're in
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Massachuset's with Senator Warren. Why do you think Senator Warren
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: has been so consistently holding that line and not maybe
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: opening up, even though in the debate, I think it
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: was a second debate we saw a little bit of
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: a crack in the armor as almost as to maybe
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: let crypto in a little bit. What do you think
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: is driving Senator Warren right now.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, listen, I think that she's got to be
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: revalued waiting some of the strong stances that she's taken
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: on this. A lot of the comments she's made on
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: crypto have been around environmental issues and then illicit finance,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: and it has always been my belief that, you know,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: she's using those as talking points as to go after
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: the technology that you know, if you look at the
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: way that law enforcement uses blockchains to track down criminals today,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: it's actually superior to what we see in the traditional system.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: So throwing out those arguments, you know, are not genuine.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: I do think that there is a philosophical difference between
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth Warren and many others in Congress, and that she
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: wants the government to have a lot of control over
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: everyday lives. And so even though she has been critical
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: of the big banks and of big tech and blockchain
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: networks are our solution to that, she likes the way
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: that the rules are today. She likes that the banks
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: will you know, go hand over all of the information
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: to the government when asked, she likes that the banks
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: will you know, not service politically dis favored industries. When
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: when she puts that out there, and I think that,
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: you know, she even likes I think the position where
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: a lot of the big tech companies are in working
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: with the government, and so you know, what people in
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: the crypto and blockchain industry are doing, are building, you know,
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: ways to disrupt that level of control. And so I
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: that is my best guess. I don't know. I've spent
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: a lot of time thinking about this. She doesn't meet
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: with us. We meet with her staff on occasion, and
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: you know, they'll talk about the concerns around the Lilystic finance,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: et cetera. But but those are misinformed and I think
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: a distraction from from what's really going on, and it's
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: it's government control of personal information.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's the key thing. There is just
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the idea of freedom. This is something Dat and I've
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: talked to quite a bit in terms of our original stance.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: I wanted to kind of hear your point. You've got
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the Policy Summit coming up in December. You put out
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: a letter to President Trump and also Vice President Harris,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: regardless of which one wins, the potential of them to
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: maybe show up. Do you think either one of them
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: will show up at the event to speak speak to.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: The I mean, I would certainly hope, so you know,
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: we've yeah, whoever the next president is, I think that
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: these are issues that the Congress is going to want
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: to deal with, their issues, regulatory agencies are going to
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: be dealing with, and so to have strong leadership from
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: from the future president in this space is very important.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: And I think if whoever wins, or quite frankly, whoever loses,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: wants to show up, we would we would gladly welcome
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: them to speak and figure out a path forward. But
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: if they can't join themselves and we could get a
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: surrogate on there we have I think we would we
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: would be equally excited.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Well we should have. It should be a good showing there.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to seeing how how things kind
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: of transparent there. To play a clip for you, this
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: is from the DC Fintech Week, which is actually happening
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: I think today, and there's a couple of clips here
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I think that are interesting around new investors. Listen to
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: this one right here.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: We're seeing a lot of new investors. When we talk
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: about the new investors, they are young. For almost two
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: thirds are between the ages of eighteen and thirty four.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: About a third of them say that their.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Portfolio value is under two thousand dollars. Black African American investors,
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: almost half of them are new investors.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: They've been in the.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Market less than two years. Same with Hispanic investors. Thirty
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: eight percent say that they've been in the market less
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: than two years. This number I find particularly striking fifty
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: four percent, so over half of new investors say that
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: they're invested in crypto and the blue bar you can
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: see that a lot of new investors are getting their
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: information from social media.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: Are they still investing because.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: During that time was a market downturn, seventy five percent
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: of new investors are still in the market or we're
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: still in the market back then. As many people are
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: joining the markets through the purchase of crypto as by
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: opening a traditional investing account. Statistically speaking, these are identical
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: to each other, so.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: Not only is it bringing people.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: In overall, but it's also based on what they're telling us,
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: also bringing them to other parts of the market.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Are those those kind of data points? Do those surprise
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: you at all?
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: You know, they don't surprise me. I mean, I think
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: that crypto can be very accessible, especially for young people
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: who are digitally native, who are used to doing things
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: through apps on their phone. I think if you download
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: the Coinbase app or the crack and app like, they
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: are very user friendly and they're very good at providing
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: content to help educate people about the crypto marketplace, and so,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: you know, I think one of the interesting things is
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: that that crypto isn't just a digital asset that goes
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: up and down. It is part of these networks that
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: are the new tech stack for the future Internet and
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: the future financial services system. And so to be able
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: to get exposure to that in a way that's relatively
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: easy to do, I think is something that people do
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: understand and you know, and it's translating to kind of
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: like we're talking about earlier, this this grassroots political force.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: You know, it's not just the lobbying efforts of the
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: industry or the political activity of the industry. It's the
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: fact that so many everyday people do have you know,
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: exposure to crypto. They do want to see the promise
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: that these networks have materialize, and they want to see
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: more services that you know, are are working for them. Right.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of problems today we have with some
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: of our financial services and internet companies and so so yeah, no,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: it doesn't surprise me. Very very encouraging to see those numbers.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: This is one of the few areas of investing that
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: there are true communities. Whether you're getting into NFTs, you're
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: going into mean coins, or you're getting traditional you know,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: blue chip assets out there, they still have these massive
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: communities that are global, you know. So it's really opening up.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: And then you look at the opportunity around gaming. There's
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: a lot here culturally that is starting to shift. And
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: with that, I looked at, you know, what Kamala Harris
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: is doing, and this is a program that she, of
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: course has been putting out there. This was an agenda
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: for improving black entrepreneurs and others to start a business.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Part of this will be protect crypto currency investments. So
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: black men who are a big part of this new
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: investor class going there and know that their money is safe.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I know they're going on that safe concept when in
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: reality it's safe as it is right now. But when
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: you look at her position here and what she has
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: done with the biggest nemesis of crypto being when I
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: see she meaning the Biden administration, the biggest nemesis of
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: crypto being Gary Gensler, do you think her not for
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: the Biden administration not putting more pressure on Gensler, is
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: going to come back and be a liability in the end.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, listen, I think we've seen a lot of polling.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: One in twenty voters in swing states considered as cryptocurrency
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: an important issue. We poll after poll throughout the spring
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: and summer has shown that this is something that people
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: care about. And so yeah, I do worry that she
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: is at a disadvantage because she doesn't have a more
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: thoughtful and defined position. Again, you know, as we said,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: she's had time restrictions. There's reasons for it. But yeah,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: I think if you know, we find out that she
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: loses Pennsylvania or Michigan or some of these these swing
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: states by a few thousand votes and that there are
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: actually also a few thousand people who go to solely
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: on crypto, it's it's going to be Gary Gunsler and
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Elizabeth Warren's fault. I think that they, you know, did
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: a huge disservice to the Democratic Party. Fortunately, I think
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of like Democrats in office of
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Sound Mind that have come up independently and are kind
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: of you know, isolating them and not letting them be
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: kind of the thought leaders for the party anymore, because
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: because I do think it puts them that at a disadvantage.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: That being said, though, I do think that if she wins,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: I think we can get her there. I think there
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: are enough individuals around the country. There's a sophisticated industry,
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: there is a very active sort of crypto advocate class,
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: and if you know, the political environment is ripe that
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: I think she can we can get her to the
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: right place. It's it's just going to take some time.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Well, I think the key there is, well, Pennsylvania is
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: a big one. I was looking at I think it
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: was five thirty eight and they were saying if they
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: if she doesn't win Pennsylvania, it's like a four percent
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: chance that she would take the presidency. So that's a
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: very critical battleground right now, which is why you're seeing
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Eli must spending so much time in Pennsylvania obviously and
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: doing some of the antics that he's out there doing.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I want to get into your policy summit. This was
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: a clip from last year and it's one of my
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: favorite people. I want to play it for you.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: And a couple of people said, well, you're talking to
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: the smartest critic of crypto in congress's curious to see
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: how that's going to go. And there's a lot of
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: people in the bitcoin community in particular that are very
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: anti fractional reserve banking, with the idea this is all
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: of this is on the public.
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: That's fine, but like there's flat earthers too, like it doesn't. Well,
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: let's democratize access, but let's not replace that with the
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: appropriate disclosure guidelines. And I think that's that to me,
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: has been where a lot of the political tension who
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: has been around this visue.
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: Well, it's that's the kind of transparency and disclosures that
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: this allows. Because anybody can get up look on ether
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: scan or a block explore and see exactly how much,
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: how many tokens have been issued, how many have been minted.
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: We haven't done a good job as an industry of
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: sort of laying out making that usable for.
• 20:01
  Speaker 6: Well, I'm gonna say something harsher. That's sort of like
• 20:04
  Speaker 6: saying I own a bat and therefore I'm a baseball player.
• 20:08
  Speaker 6: Pick any cryptocurrency you want, how much how much is
• 20:12
  Speaker 6: in circulation today, how much of that is being traded
• 20:15
  Speaker 6: on exchange versus off exchange, if it's a stable coin,
• 20:18
  Speaker 6: what is the nature of the reserves? Are those disclosed
• 20:21
  Speaker 6: on a regular basis? You can't answer any of those
• 20:24
  Speaker 6: questions for almost any like okay, it's on the blockchain, right,
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: I mean this is this has not been a good
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: month for cryptocurrencies right between between hamas, all of this
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: information that North Korea is funding their nuclear weapons program.
• 20:39
  Speaker 6: The they can't do that with web three, right. It
• 20:44
  Speaker 6: scares the dickens out of me when I see smart
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: people saying really stupid things about financial markets, and there's
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: and there's nothing wrong with in an emerging industry of
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: saying we've got we've got some cool things, we've got
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: the beginnings of this, but don't pretend to be JP.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Morgan, all right. So I mean obviously Caston not a
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: big proponent, and some of the things we highlighted there
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: were him saying some dumb things about the crypto markets.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: My question is, do you think he learned anything this
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: past year and will he be back?
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: I like to think we hope.
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: So.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I think in the last hearing he had, you know,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: some hostile comments to say as well. But I mean, listen,
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: I think the crypto industry has good answers, Like all
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: the things he's like it's on the blockchain, it's because
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: he doesn't know how to go and look at a blockchain,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: see what's there? Like this, These these are all these
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: are all questions that if we could get in front
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: of a computer with him, we can solve. I think, listen,
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: I mean I will give him credit for showing up, right,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: he like Elizabeth Warren didn't show up. He will show
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: up and tell us what his concerns are. And so
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: I think having that kind of dialogue is important because
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: then we can go back and be like, all right,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: how can you package the information in a way that
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: he can see it and experience it and feel it.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, I do think over time, you know,
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: hope his policies can shift and he can understand that.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: You know, yes, certainly there are certain risks, but like,
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: let's look at the risks that exist in this world
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: and not try to take the solutions from the old world,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: which is often what happens and put them on this
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: new system because it just doesn't work. So so yeah,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: it it gets a little bit frustrating. These these are
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: conversations we have all the time, and there are new
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: policy makers that are coming in all the time. Right,
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: We're about to have a bunch of new members of
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Congress selected. Fortunately, I think a lot of them will
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: have been introduced to crypto already. But it's again, it's
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: not just a single conversation, it's many of them. And
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: so that's a lot of the work we do at
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: the Blockchain Association is organizing the industry, putting the content
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: in a format that is easily understood, and going and
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: having those conversations over and over and over so that
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: you know, when the bills work their way through committees
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: and get to the House floor, people feel confident that
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: they can vote for it because they understand underlying issues.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: I want to play a quick clip for you around
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: what's happening with Braain because this is obviously bricks. Their
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: summit was just this week. I think it's going on
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: right now. We did a big, big video on this.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: But this is Bill Haggerty talking a little bit about
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: stable coin legislation. Listening.
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: Russia is expected to sign a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty
• 23:16
  Speaker 7: with Iran during this summit. You recently released draft legislation
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: establishing a clear regulatory framework. This builds upon cong'send mckenney's
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: Clarity for Payment Stable Coins Act. Tell us more about
• 23:27
  Speaker 7: this and how this is.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Going to be used.
• 23:29
  Speaker 8: I've come in and made some adjustments that I think
• 23:31
  Speaker 8: it'll make it easier to get through both bodies. The
• 23:33
  Speaker 8: Biden and Harris administration has done everything they can to
• 23:35
  Speaker 8: destroy that sort of legal certainty. This will begin to
• 23:38
  Speaker 8: chip away at the Democrats war on cryptocurrency.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and do you.
• 23:42
  Speaker 7: Think we would see this kind of legislation from the
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: current Securities and Exchange Commission chairman? Or is this making
• 23:48
  Speaker 7: the assumption there's a new SEC chairman?
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: The assumption is very clear.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: All right, So he's assuming there's going to be a
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: new SEC person to deal with, and he's assuming that
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: we can possibly with some tweaking of this bill get
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: it through both bodies. Likelihood could that happen? I don't know.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I haven't had a chance to see it. But it's
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: good that we're seeing more people getting active in this.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Is this typical of DC to do this kind of
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: try to improve on a bill like that?
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, yeah. When a bill is introduced that is
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: a starting point. It's very rarely the end point. And
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: that's part of the process, right You put ideas out there,
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: you get feedback, you make changes, you make changes at committee,
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: you can do amendments on the floor. You know, this
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: is how we try to get the optimal policies done.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: And I do think stable coin legislation is something that
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: could move before the end of the year. It could
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: get bumped into next year as well. But this is
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: one of those bills that has been discussed and analyzed
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: by Congress going back to twenty nineteen. If you recall
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: when Facebook or then Facebook announced the then libor project,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: this was something that Congress held hearings on in both
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: the House the Senate. We had the President's Working Group
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: both in the prior Trump administration and then now in
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: the Biden administration. Both of those presidents working groups issued
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: reports that said, hey, you know, we have like gaps
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: and federal laws and we need to make sure that
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: we have the appropriate regulation in place. So we really
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: do need Congress to get a bill done. And I
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: do think it's one of those things that you know,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: we may be able to see a quick compromise at
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: the end of the year and get it attached to
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: a year end package. If the Congress ends up having
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: a lively and productive lamebuck session, it's a little bit
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: hard to know, you know, how many bills are going
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: to be able to get done until we know the
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: results of the election and who's going to control the
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: House and Senate, et cetera.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Do you think that with that stable coin legislation that
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: it could open up lanes for companies like Ripple here's
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: a tweet they announced this. Of course Ripple going in
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and really kind of getting into their partners with r
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: l U s D. And if you look at that
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and the potential of the New York Department, what is
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: it the ny FD or fs D that are in
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: a position where they could go in and maybe get
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: this approved on a fast track. Do you think they're
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: just waiting for regulation to occur for that to actually happen.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's it's completely possible to issue stable
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: coins today without that regulation, right, and the framework that
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: stable coin issuers need in the United States at the
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: moment are state money transmitter licenses, But there's probably better
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: ways to do that at the federal level, which is why,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: you know, one of the things that stable coin legislation
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: is trying to achieve. And so I think having that
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: framework in place and the certainty of knowing if you
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: need to have a federal license or if it's okay
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: to do it with the state license, I think that
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: these are questions that the legislation would ask. But but
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: you know, stable coins are really in the best interest
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: of the US. So if you look around the world,
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: people want access to US dollars and they can't always
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: do that from their you know, sort of local bank,
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: local financial institution. But but you get these stable coins
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: that are backed by by treasuries and dollars. I mean,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: these are you know, really reliable investments and you know
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: too that are available in parts of the world that
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: don't always have that or you know, they're stable, they
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: can keep their money there. They know it's not going
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: to go away, it's going to always be backed by
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: a dollar. And so I think that that having that
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: stability is really powerful. And I think it's something that
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: you know, only keeps the dollar stronger, uh, doesn't make
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: it doesn't make it weaker in any way at all.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: And so I think that that's something that you know,
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: would be fantastic to see get done this year. And
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: if not. I can see it moving very quickly in
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: the first quarter of next year.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: That'll be good. Moving on to the election, betting odds
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: right now still have Trump leading pretty significantly. A lot
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: of people have kind of been, i would say, mostly
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: on the left that have been kind of complaining that,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: you know, hey, these these predictive markets are not accurate.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: But here's a line list of just all the different
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: you know, betting odds data out there beyond the predictive markets.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: And if you look at Calshi, who was just obviously
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: just went I had to head with CFTC and one,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: they're also showing pretty much the same numbers. When you
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: look at that, and you think polymarket, you look at
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Calshe here in the United States, and a lot of
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: these kinds of markets out there. I mean, do you
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: support kind of what's happening in these markets in terms
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: of these uh trying to understand what's happening in these
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: political races?
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah? No, I mean I think that the prediction markets
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: are absolutely fascinating, and I wasn't particularly familiar with them,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: and tell and tell this election cycle, and I look
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: at polymarket probably on my phone every thirty minutes. I'm
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: very interested to see where the trends that are going.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: And I think one of the things that you know,
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: has come up in my conversations with politicians and candidates
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: is that you know, there's some that just don't have
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: an understanding of what they are right. This is this
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: the represent the odds of an outcome, not necessarily where
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: the votes are cast. And so I think that I
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: think it's a really powerful tool. It's obviously very different
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: than a traditional poll, but I think it does pick
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: up trends and sentiment faster than we would see, you know,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: in the normal pulling process. And I think it's a
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: tool that I think is absolutely fascinating. And we'll know,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: right we'll know an election day if these trends are right.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: And I know that the you know, in poly market,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: the race for Trump and Harris as I think what
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: like two billion dollars on it right now. I mean,
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: these are incredibly markets and they're not easy to manipulate.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it is pretty significant. And the interesting thing
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: is because Calshi is a US based predicative market, they're
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: at sixty forty. If you jump over to poly Market,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: you know it's a sixty one thirty eight. So Essentially
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: they're right within uh, you know, a margin of era.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Of course, the good thing here is it shows some
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: of these swing states which we've been talking about. I'll
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: zoom in on that for some of you guys, and
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Trump has started to pull away on a lot of these,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: so very interesting. That's a good win, I think in
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: general for the Republicans, but also just for crypto in general.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: The other thing I wanted to show you was a
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: clip here. This is Rustam Benham from a CFTC. He
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: was basically kind of coming to a final conclusion on
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: what's happening in these predictive markets. Take a look at this.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if you've noticed, but there
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: are some elections going on around town, which has also brought.
• 30:30
  Speaker 9: Some attention to your agency. Could you give us an
• 30:33
  Speaker 9: overview as to sort of where things stand there. The
• 30:36
  Speaker 9: Commission has been pretty consistent over the past ten years
• 30:38
  Speaker 9: about its position on on these markets. We think they're
• 30:41
  Speaker 9: against the law, and just about a month ago the
• 30:44
  Speaker 9: Court just recorded DC ruled against us and ruled in
• 30:47
  Speaker 9: favor of Calci. We subsequently appealed and requested that the
• 30:51
  Speaker 9: DC Court of Appeals stay the contracts. So essentially prohibit
• 30:54
  Speaker 9: Calshi from listing the contracts until the court reviews the
• 30:59
  Speaker 9: issues on its mayor. It's the Appella Court denied that
• 31:02
  Speaker 9: request for stay, so now they're the contracts have been
• 31:05
  Speaker 9: listed so actively trading on a number of exchanges right now.
• 31:09
  Speaker 9: We're going to respect the decision of the judiciary. We're
• 31:12
  Speaker 9: going to certainly appeal it. That will take time, most
• 31:15
  Speaker 9: likely months.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Somewhat admitting defeat there, I think, you know which by
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the CFTC. That's a big, big statement. Interesting though. The
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: person that was asking that that was Chris Brammer, who
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: has been possibly slated here as maybe a candidate for
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Gary Gensler's job. There's rumors around that. What do you
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: think do you think that would be a good move
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: for crypto in general?
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah? No, I mean, I think Chris Brummer is fantastic.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: He's a great guy. I think he understands the current
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: laws very well. I think he also understands the direction
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: that the industry is trying to go and would be
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: a fantastic choice to run the SEC. You know, I
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: think I've seen him on a couple articles on the
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: short list if Harris wins and so so, I think
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: he would be fantastic.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: And of course Stand with Crypto is active out there
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: right now, so we continue to tell everybody if you're
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: if you're still uncertain if your candidate is pro crypto,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: go over to Stand with Crypto. You guys can learn
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: a lot more about the endorsed candidates that they're backing,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: but also learn if your own congressman or senator senator
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: is in in the position of a pro crypto stance,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: so check that out. Of course, if you guys want
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: to check out the Blockchain Association, make sure and visit
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Kristen's website. We'll put a link down below for you
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: guys on that. Kristin, it's been great having you on.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming in.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me, Paul. This has been great,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: and maybe we can do it again after we see
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: the results of the election.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is going to be huge. It's going to
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: be massive, as they say, all right, well, thanks for
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: coming in. We appreciate it. We'll chat with you soon,
• 32:55
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• 32:57
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• 32:59
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• 33:07
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• 33:11
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