Let's get to the big story.
Breakdown.
While all eyes are on Capitol Hill as the crypto industry's top policy priority, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, might finally see a breakthrough this week.
Now the waters do remain choppy.
Banks are warning that crypto alternatives could threaten their find foundational deposit base, and Trump recently took to Truth Social, accusing the banking.
Sector of using this bill to undermine the already passed Genius Act.
Now if the Senate Banking Committee can push this bill through a markup hearing, it will be combined with a separate version that already passed the Adittee on strict party lines.
But here's the catch that combined legislation will still need major backing from Democrats if it has any real shot at passing a vote in the.
Full Senate with the 2026 midterms fast approaching, the clock is ticking.
Well joining me live here at the New York Stock Exchange to weigh in is Cleve Mesidor, executive director of Blockchain Foundation.
Good morning, Cleve.
A lot going on across markets, but I do want to get your take on clarity.
What will it take to get it across the finish line?
Oh my God, I think it will take clarity.
I'm I'm being flip, but we are expecting some movement.
We are hearing that Senate banking staffers are talking, are getting to a point where there could be a markup, as you mentioned.
The Senate Ad Committee has.
Already had their markups, so it's now all eyes are on Senate Banking and staffers are talking.
Amendments are moving.
I am a bit disappointed the amendment I've been on here to talk about quite a bit what would actually call for a federal study, call for the inclusion of a federal study of CDFIs and MDIs, these small subsidiaries of the financial system, to actually have the Fed, the OCC, and the FDIC do a federal study.
There's always somebody against something, so there was a small group, an obscure group called the Community Development Bankers Association that was against it, not against the merit of a federal study that would just study the issue, but they, I believe Senate staffers told me the issue was timing.
So it is disappointing while the Genius Act had a provision for credit unions that the market structure bill will not.
Have one for these small small institutions that actually fill the gap in financial deserts across rural and urban America, but I'm excited that a markup is possible because as you mentioned this is a long process.
A markup in the Senate Banking Committee would only get us to some pathway to reconciliation in the Senate so that we can actually reconcile the bill across both chambers, which is Long sloth.
So the goal is maybe if we can find some one way in the calendar that you know if you know Speaker Toon is able to find some time on the calendar this month that if that mockup occurs maybe by July there could be a vote, but there's still a slim chance that this doesn't get passed.
We have to measure success differently, which I think is what.
Senators have been thinking about because you've heard about the housing bill, the Senate housing bill.
Well, it has a crypto provision.
There's a provision for anti-CBDC and it has found a home in the housing bill and it's moving forward this week.
It's the big piece of legislation for the Senate banking and if we don't get a markup on clarity, we'll get.
We'll get a CBDC ban advanced.
Yes, and as you mentioned, there are a lot of moving parts here, but when it comes to price action here on Wall Street, all of us have been watching what's happening with the crypto majors, in particular Bitcoin as well as E.
But at the same time we are hearing about institutional adoption, the increase in that.
So there are a lot of politics involved when it comes to digital assets.
So what are you hearing from stakehold? in the nation's capital, well, the big issue is with the banks, right?
The banks and, you know, crypto leaders.
We've, we've had the White House hold 3 summits to try to negotiate a compromise.
We saw President Trump side with Coinbase CEO, you know, Brian Armstrong on social media to say that the banks need to come to the table.
The banks do not seem enthusiastic about the compromise that.
On the table, I think right now the biggest stakeholder we're looking at is the banks and the banking trades, but the fact is they're talking right even though they're disagreeing, and I think we're on track to actually get some compromise to actually address this issue of stable coin yield, which is ironic because the market structure bill is actually not a stable coin bill.
It's really to really expand that provision to thwart this whole pushback on yield.
Yes, and Clive, the reason why you're in New York is to attend the Clinton Global Initiative winner retreat.
So tell us about how things have changed, considering what's happened here on Wall Street and also about the working session you're going to be leading.
Yes, Blockchain Foundation is a commitment maker to the Clinton Global Initiative.
We made a commitment in 2022 to advance.
Blockchain education across America.
Many people will not remember that President Clinton was an avid, you know, had an avid presence at crypto conferences, ripples conferences, I think it was called Swell.
And so in 2022 you had quite a few people attend crypto people from the crypto industry attend the CGI, the Clinton Global Initiative, as I started doing in 2023, so.
We continue that commitment to educate Americans about digital assets.
There's so much work to do, and the Blackton Foundation, which I lead, is continuing to lead that chart, and the Clinton Global Initiative has been a great forum to have that conversation.
So many stakeholders are there.
We have to expand the conversation around blockchain cryptocurrency outside of just blockchain cryptocurrency.
So for the.
Foundation, we look at access points.
We look at the largest groups that actually had the largest stakeholders so that we can engage and CGI has been a big partner for that.
I'm excited to be part of the winter meeting.
I'll be part of a working group to talk about their conference in September and what are some of those priorities, and we know that the future of digital finance is real.
It's here and I'm excited.
To talk about how we actually partner with the stakeholders across the Clinton Global Initiative to get that done.
Yes, and Clive, you mentioned the importance of expanding the conversation beyond just crypto and digital assets and what's happening across fintech, and you recently attended the Milken Institute event in addition to the NCUA roundtable.
So give us an idea of what's actually happening on the ground.
Yeah, what we're seeing on the ground is there's, there's a fusion of, you know, fintech and traditional finance coming together.
We saw that at Milken.
It wasn't just obviously was the forum was focused on the future of finance.
It wasn't just folks on crypto.
We were talking about tokenization.
We were talking about the future of money, but we were also talking about the need.
To educate various consumers, small businesses, entrepreneurs, leaders of institutions, and same thing with NCUA as I shared earlier, the NCUA has given credit unions under the purview guidance for digital assets.
They will have a pathway for issuing, issuing stable coins via subsidiaries, so there's a lot of education and engagement that has to be there.
And later this month I'll be at the Digital Chambers DC blockchain summit and where we will be talking about these.
It's a policy conversation, but at this point we have to expand this conversation to state policy but also groups that focus on financial freedom.
This is a Main Street conversation now.
Crypto is here.
We we passed legislation. in the rulemaking process.
We have to get into the mainstream and educate consumers, not just retail investors, but everyday consumers that will really drive stablecoin adoption as well as tokenization.
Well, Cleve, there are a lot of moving parts there.
Thank you so much for breaking all of this down and as always, thank you so much for sharing all of your insights and your perspective.
Thank you.
Thank you.
