Hi, I'm Vince Molinari and welcome to FinTech TV.
We're broadcasting from the iconic New York Stock Exchange, and we are thrilled to be kicking off the new season of our show, The Digital Asset Report, with a very special guest that could not be more timely and insightful.
I would like to welcome Patrick Witt.
Patrick is the executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets at the White House.
Patrick, welcome to the show.
Welcome to New York Stock Exchange.
Welcome to FinTech TV.
Thank you for having me.
It's great to be here.
Absolutely delighted, and as a, we cut our teeth as FinTech TV and digital transformation, digital assets.
Our show, the Digital Asset Report really birthed us globally.
So having you here for the beginning of our new season, as I said, is perfectly timely, and I'm so thankful that you came today.
Well, grateful to be on the show.
A lot going on in the digital asset space.
In Washington, obviously up here in New York and the world over.
So a lot to talk about.
Absolutely.
Maybe you can kick us off.
You know, we're all about education and awareness.
You know, give us a little overview of the president's council, what it's doing, what it stands for.
Yeah, so this was back during the transition.
I worked on the transition down in West Palm Beach, and the idea for an office that was somewhat modeled after the Office of American Innovation that Jared Kushner had in the first Trump administration.
Um, was to, to centralize this agenda.
The president, president had obviously made a number of promises on the campaign trail about wanting to bring digital assets into the regulatory fold to advance legislation to end Operation Chillpoint.
2.0 to establish the strategic Bitcoin reserve.
There were a lot of those different promises, and they ultimately touched on a number of different agencies.
So Treasury has a role to play, the OCC, the FDIC, the Fed, uh, the SEC, the CFTC, the list goes on.
Um, so having an office and really a point person, um, in, in David Sachs as the AI and crypto czar, and then initially Bo Hines, my predecessor.
And then myself in the role of executive director, uh, the day to day full-time government employee that is, is trying to unify and make coherent the entire crypto agenda across government.
So, uh, we convene regular meetings of all the different uh regulators and uh make sure that we are moving out on the different promises that the president had made with the digital asset report that the crypto.
Counsel ultimately published ensuring that the recommendations in there are being executed against, that if there's rulemaking involved, that they're moving it through the policy process, and then lately also my job has mainly been advocating for and trying to advance the crypto market structure bill, the Clarity Act, in the Senate.
So Bo.
My predecessor in this role, genius was really his, his burden is not the right word.
It's a labor of love, but that was his main task.
Obviously they got that across the finish line, and this is, this is the next key piece of the legislative agenda to ensure that we can make good on the promise that the president established of making the United States the crypto capital of the world.
Well, if you see, I'm smiling with great affection.
And also empathy and understanding the lift from the prior administration.
And, you know, we go through things from Operation Chokehold to the, uh, I'd say the disservice that we did to our country by not embracing digital transformation.
And we, we've seen other countries advance in front of us.
So the, the amazing speed and the ability with the administration put forth and the help with yourself. predecessor, of course, David Sachs, and really playing catch up and now advancing to be the leadership in the world.
So, one, being a, a, a fellow digital transformation enthusiast, couldn't appreciate more what you all are doing.
So thank you on behalf of so many of us.
Um, you know, when we talk, before we talk about some of the, the, the legislation specifically, you know, this is kind of a little bit of a group of superheroes when I look at the composition of the council.
Can you speak to that a bit?
Sure, so obviously it starts at the top, uh, with the president setting the direction, uh, that he wanted to go in and then bringing in a, a brilliant, uh, brilliant thinker, brilliant investor, uh, someone that really understands both the tech and also the business side of digital assets, and David Sachs, my boss, he's been, uh, incredible to, to work under, to, to study, and when he weighs in on, on different issues, people obviously respect his opinion and, um, it just, it, it.
It provides for such a clear voice on this issue.
Over at Treasury, obviously Secretary Besson has been a strong advocate for bringing digital assets into the regulatory landscape, normalizing them as an asset class.
Chairman Atkins over at the SEC, now Chairman Selig at the CFTC, Comptroller Gold at the OCC.
It really is a dream team, as, as you mentioned.
You have people that are forward thinking, pro-innovation, pro-digital assets, recognize the benefits that this technology can have for modernizing the financial infrastructure and creating the, the new financial fabric of the future.
So, um, for 4 years in America, we, um, we, as the Biden administration did everything that they could to try and kill crypto or, you know, what they really ultimately did was just drive it offshore.
Um, unless you're turning off the internet, you can't really kill crypto.
It's, uh, uh, it, it is part of the fabric of, of the internet and connectivity.
Um, so ultimately what we want to do is we have to play catch up and then ultimately leapfrog ahead.
A number of other jurisdictions that embraced crypto early on, we fell behind and the president is, is.
Competitor, he wants to make sure that we are dominating and we are leading on all the different technology areas of the future.
So whether it's AI, whether it's crypto, nuclear, you name it, on down the list, the president wants to make sure that the United States is the standard setter and the leader in these different technology areas, and I'm privileged to be able to work on crypto to advance that agenda.
Absolutely, and Patrick, we, we could talk more, and I have to have you come back, but maybe as we close out it just a quick update on where we are in current legislation.
What are you thinking?
Do we get the passage anytime soon?
Well, hopefully very soon.
So, uh, the House obviously passed their version of the Clarity Act, uh, last summer.
Feels like a long time ago at this point.
Uh, the Senate has gone through its own process, and both the Senate Banking Committee and the Senate Ag Committee, Agriculture Committee, given the dual nature of the, the bill with the SEC and the CFTC both implicated.
Uh, we were successful in getting the agriculture Committee portion voted out of committee, I guess, uh, about a month ago at this point in time, and, uh, despite the fact that it was a partisan vote, which was unfortunate, um.
It is historic because that was the first time that the Senate has ever advanced market structure legislation to the floor.
On the Senate banking side, there are a number of issues that we're still working through.
There was a markup in January that ultimately came down.
We're hoping to get a markup on the books again very soon.
The main issue that has been the holdup that we're trying to solve in the near term, and when I say near term in the next couple of weeks.
At the latest hopefully is this issue of stable coin rewards and yield.
Uh, we have devoted a significant amount of time and resources to convening the different actors on the crypto side, on the bank side to come up with a durable compromise on this issue, and, and we do think it's not the only issue to be resolved, but if we can get this one done, this is going to be the domino that that everything else falls into place.
Awesome.
Well, Patrick, thank you again.
Have to have you come back real soon.
Give us the next update.
Thank you for joining us.
What a pleasure.
Thank you.
