The September effect doesn't only apply to stocks.
Bitcoin has seen a red September in 8 of the last 12 years and experienced an average drop of 3.8%.
Now Solana has seen strong September gains since 2021.
Meanwhile, Defi has never seen a more favorable regulatory environment during the month of September.
The Genius Act has already passed, so Congress still needs to. out the kinks on market structure legislation.
Meanwhile, the White House is busy with its own D5 ventures as the World Liberty Financial token launched yesterday.
There are numerous regulatory pro-DI innovation catalysts on the horizon moving forward, and this does come as blockchains are building out internet capital markets, a financial system powered by blockchain.
And without a track by authority.
Well joining me this morning is Kristen Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute.
Good morning, Kristen, and thank you so much for joining me.
Well, happy September 1st, all eyes are on the nation's capital as Congress will soon return to Capitol Hill.
But what are the DI regulatory catalysts that you've seen during the 1st 8 months of the year and your expectations moving forward?
Yeah, good morning, Rey.
It's a big time in Washington right now.
The August recess is over and members of Congress are coming back to town, uh, hopefully to some slightly less humid weather than than we experienced here in August.
But you know, it was a really exciting week this past week.
There were over 100 organizations, including Swana Policy Institute, that joined together to write a letter to Congress as they're considering market structure legislation with a focus on.
Developer protection, you know, it's really exciting to see institutional adoption of DFI and blockchain technology, but none of this works if we don't have basic protections in place for those software developers who help write the code that create these services.
And so, um, you know, we're hopeful to see some of these protections included in Senate market structure legislation that's going to be one of the top priorities for Congress this fall.
Um, but you know, over the summer we did.
See an unfortunate court decision for of two software developers and so Slana Policy Institute was proud to help support the defense for their appeal, you know, that that is coming up later this year.
So, um, really important piece, but there's a bunch of other items on the agenda, but I think the, you know, the important thing is, and we've talked about this several times, is that, you know, the past, you know, 8 or 9 months or so have been the most um.
A positive step forward on the regulatory front in terms of putting a framework in place and that has really enabled the industry to focus on building out services, finding product market fit, and moving the ball forward in terms of useful applications that everyone can enjoy.
Well, Kristen, here on the east coast we're noticing that the days are getting shorter unfortunately, but we're also noticing that the countdown is on to year end and you just mentioned developer protection.
So for viewers out there who may not be as familiar with this, can you expand on what you just mentioned?
Yeah, well, if you think about it, if, if I'm a criminal and I drive my car to go rob a bank, we don't go after the manufacturer of the car for, for the crime, right?
It's the criminal who does the crime.
And similarly with software you can have developers that build open source source software, put that out in the world, and then somebody else uses.
That software to commit a crime and so what we wanna focus on is that you know those those people who are building open source software have the protections from being liable for other people's use of that software and so without that it's really difficult, it's really challenging what we see is these software developers will just pack up and leave, right?
You don't need, you can.
You can write code from anywhere in the world and if in the US you get prosecuted for someone else's use of that code, you're not going to do it here.
And so it's really important that we have these types of protections.
The House earlier this year passed market structure legislation and what they did is they included language in there that makes it clear that, you know, these types of software.
Developers that are making software related to blockchains are not considered money transmitters, so that's a really important piece that we want to see ultimately signed into law.
Yeah, and Christine, while we have you here, I do want to get your take on what the Solana Policy Institute is focusing on as we return from the summer months.
Yeah, well, there's a lot particularly going on in Congress.
There's this market structure legislation that I mentioned that we expect to be moving through the Senate.
There is an opportunity for tax legislation, you know, we'd love to get some clarity around the treatment of seeking rewards.
This is something that can be done by Congress or directly by the IRS.
And then maybe the third issue is the CFTC, which is the regulator of the derivative. markets as of tomorrow will be down to one commissioner.
It's supposed to be a 5 person commission.
And so we want to make sure that we get the president's nominee, Brian Quends confirmed to the Senate and we get other commissioners there so that that agency has has the full team needed in order to do the proper regulatory oversight and do new rules that might relate specifically to crypto.
So it's going to be a busy fall.
Yeah, and although it's a holiday shortened week, Kristen, we do have a lot packed into the calendar and all eyes are on the nation's capital.
So finally, can you tell us how the internet capital markets are growing and what are blockchain advocates out there actually hoping that these markets become?
Yeah, well, I mean, internet capital markets is a very big idea, and it's the idea that all assets are trading online and that they can, uh, you know, be be used and then levered against one another.
It's a very exciting idea.
Part of the challenge is when it comes to tokenized equities or tokenized derivatives.
We need to update the laws um to make sure that it's a seamless experience um for users and so fortunately, both the SEC and the CFTC have initiatives underway to do so, um, and so we're continuing to file documents with the SEC propose ideas on how the rules can be.
Um, modified or, um, or what exemption should apply so that, you know, the appropriate risks are regulated, but if, uh, you know, we're not just regulating for regulating regulation's sake.
So it's a very um important initiative and we really are grateful for the work that both the SEC and the CFTC are doing uh to move the ball forward here.
OK, Kristen, well, thank you so much for joining us on this Tuesday morning as we kick off a new trading week as well as a new trading month and we look forward to speaking with you soon.
Thank you so much.
