Welcome to FinTech TV.
I'm Remy Blair.
Sallana is seeing plenty of momentum around the New York Stock Exchange.
Salon Space has just opened up here on Wall Street, and Bitwise has launched the first US spot Salon ATP, which is a staking ETF.
Bitwise getting this done despite the government shutdown, which has taken place.
And amid the shutdowns, crypto leaders aren't just waiting around.
They went to DC to speak with the Republican and Democratic lawmakers separately about.
The need for clarity and some other Salon News Western Union announcing its planned stablecoin launch at Money 2020.
It will be built on Sallana's blockchain.
Well, joining me this morning is Kristen Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute.
Kristen, great to have you on.
Very exciting times for Solana here.
So let's start out with the ETF launches, including Grayscale, Solana, and Bitwise's Slana Staking.
So how did all this come about and what does it all mean?
Yeah, well, good morning, Rey.
It's great to be here.
Certainly a very big week for the Solana community.
You know, we've had this government shutdown which has made it difficult for a lot of routine administrative approvals by the SEC to happen.
And what Bitwise and Greyscale did is they used some guidance that the FCC had put out that applications can automatically go effective, and they were able to convince the New York Stock Exchange that this was good and so they've got all the pieces that they needed and started launching this week.
I think it's really exciting that way.
It was was the first one to go, and it was the number one ETF launch of 2025 by volume.
So absolutely fantastic performance.
And then Grayscale converted an existing product to an ETP and so that is trading now as well.
So I think it's really exciting.
It's really, um, a moment where we're seeing the Convergence of Solana and Wall Street, and we're seeing new investors that come in and want to invest in Sallana and we're also seeing firms on Wall Street look to Solana, uh, to upgrade their technology for how they run their businesses.
So very exciting time and kudos to both Bitwise and Grayscale for successful launches.
And the US government shutdown continues, but blockchain advocates have remained optimistic about the regulatory changes amid the shutdown, but this has been dragging on for close to a month.
So are you optimistic here?
Well, at some point the government's going to need to reopen.
I think what we're starting to see now is the emergence of polling data that the extended prolonged shutdown is starting to take a toll, and I think that is going to force policymakers to come to the table and come up with some sort of deal that gets the government.
Funded and back open again.
I think, you know, they have been very creative within the government and have still been able to pay the military, the troops, but we're going to start seeing some cracks if we don't get the federal government back to work and allow for, you know, sort of the administrative to. of the government to continue.
So I think, I think we'll get there, but it's certainly been a long time.
I think this is, this is a record breaking one, at least it's close to being on path to.
So, um, so, uh, but the good news is I think, you know, crypto doesn't sleep and is very creative and finds, uh, you know, and you know how to move, how to move forward despite, despite the shutdown.
Yeah, and speaking of which, let's shift our focus on over to the nation's capital.
So you were in DC last week when crypto leaders pitched clarity separately to Republicans as well as Democrats.
So give us your key takeaways from last week.
Yeah, well, you have to remember the legislative branch is opening and functioning, which is very different than the executive branch we were just discussing, where about 90% or more of employees are furloughed at any given federal agency.
So Congress is working and there has been a lot of back and forth between industry and other stakeholders in Congress, as well as on both the Republican and Democratic side of the aisle, but we had a really fantastic discussion with Democrats last week.
There were 10 executives that came and met with 12 Democratic senators for over an hour and got into topics around decentralized finance and really kind of getting into the weeds as to what a regulatory framework for the centralized exchanges could look like.
And then the Republicans, knowing that we had such a good group of industry leaders in town also had held a meeting and so I think, you know, prior to these meetings, the talks between the two.
Sides of the aisle had sort of shut down and that this was effective in getting um both at the at the Senator Senate level senator level and their staffs, they're talking again um and trying to work through and find a pathway forward.
I would, I would say I think legislation is, uh, you know, very important, but it's also important that we get it done correctly and so I think this is a process that is going to take some time and that's probably OK, uh, as long as the government, uh, on the agency side opens up.
Because the federal agencies actually have a lot of authority to solve these issues, and the SEC is well under way to doing that.
And so I think, you know, we want to continue this dual track process and but yeah, it's very promising discussions, and I think I was really heartened by the desire by so many senators on both sides of the aisle to get this done correctly.
So very good momentum in DC and a lot of work going on, particularly with Congress despite the government shutdown.
And as we continue to monitor the situation in Washington DC, the holiday season is right around the corner, and that also means that there are plenty of conferences across the nation.
Now at Money 2020 in Vegas, which just wrapped up, Moon Pay said that the biggest topic of discussion was stablecoins.
And there's also a key announcement from Money transfers company Western Union.
They're launching a stablecoin built on Solana.
So what was your reaction to some of the exciting announcements?
You know, I was incredibly excited by the news that Western Union is going to be launching their own stablecoin and doing it on Salana.
Salana is the fastest, most used blockchain in the world and is incredibly well suited to handle something like this.
Western Union has a very long history of helping people move money around the world, and they have an amazing network.
For distribution and I think this is a really exciting partnership.
I was also excited to see Anchorage in the mix as being the sort of entity that's going to help issue this stablecoin.
And so I think this is a huge, a huge opportunity, um, you know, for Slana, but really for sort of rewiring the way that we move money around the globe, and I think um.
You know, this is, this is a, this is a very big announcement, um, but this is the type of announcement that can only happen when we do have regulatory certainty.
Like I think we have the Genius Act, something like this, this deal never would have come together, um, and I also think it shows that, um, You know, you don't need to have, if, if you're, if you're a private company and you're trying to figure out how to, uh, you know, deploy your crypto and blockchain strategy, you don't have to build your own blockchain.
You can utilize and take advantage of long-standing ones that already have a track record of success like Solana.
And Kristen, finally, before I let you go, Trump has picked Mike Selig as the next CFTC chair.
So what was your reaction?
Um, I was very exciting.
So that the CFTC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is a rather little known but incredibly important federal agency that oversees the derivatives and futures market, and this is an agency that is in need of a permanent chair right now acting chair Caroline Pham is.
Solo heading the agency, typically you have a 5 person commission, but Mike Zelig is incredibly important because right now he's working with Chair Atkins on staff at the SEC on Project Crypto.
And so for the crypto industry getting someone with Mike's experience to head the companion agency, the CFTC, is incredibly important.
I think that will facilitate collaboration. between the SEC and the CFTC and Mike also has a really strong and robust vision for updating the rules and regulations so that crypto can thrive.
So we were incredibly excited at Policy Institute to see and hear this news, and we hope that the Senate will act swiftly to confirm his nomination.
OK, Kristen, well, we will have to leave it there for today, but as always, thank you so much for joining us and thank you so much for sharing your perspective and your insights.
Awesome, thanks Remy.
