Shifting Perspectives: SEC Chairman Embraces Self-Custody in Crypto

In New York Morning trade, we are looking at Bitcoin hovering right above the 109,000 level after recovering 110 yesterday, and SEC Chairman Paul Atkins signaling a shift in how the agency views self custody.

Speaking Monday at the SEC's final crypto task force roundtable, Atkins called self-custody a foundational American value, marking a break from the prior administration's approach.

Here's more of what he had to say.

The right to have self-custody of one's private property is a foundational American value that should not disappear when one logs on to the internet.

I'm in favor of affording greater flexibility to market participants to self-custody crypto assets, especially where intermediation imposes unnecessary transaction costs or restricts the ability to engage in staking and other on-chain activities.

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee are dismissing claims that Trump could personally profit from crypto legislation, calling it political theatrics.

The debate comes as lawmakers prepare to vote on the digital asset Market Clarity Act today.

Now Democrats led by Maxine Waters say more questions need to be asked about Trump's potential ties to the industry.

And separately, Brian Quintes, the nominee to lead the CFTC.

Face a Senate Agricultural Committee hearing this afternoon at 3 p.m.

Eastern time.

Well, joining me this morning to weigh in on what we're seeing across the crypto landscape is Matt Pole, CEO of Strive.

Good morning, Matt.

So glad you could join us this morning.

So a lot going on today in the nation's capital as well as this week.

So what are your expectations for the slew of scheduled events that are taking place and what do you think the impact will be on the industry?

Yeah, it's it's really exciting times.

It was just a few years ago that the rights to have self-custody in the United States was not clear.

The rights to just own crypto to trade crypto was not clear.

There was an attack.

There was literally politicians calling a war on crypto, and now there's clarity.

And, and to me that removes the largest risk that Bitcoin and the broader crypto ecosystem had. was regulation risk and that risk was known.

I think Bitwise did a survey to institutional investors for the last 10 years, and regulation risk has been the number one risk.

And, and now that that's gone to zero, I think they're going to see institutional adoption continue to pick up whether it's in Bitcoin specifically, Bitcoin ETFs, uh, treasury companies adopting Bitcoin, and then obviously states and nations as well.

Yeah, and Matt, speaking of institutional adoption, a video from the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Vegas made some waves online.

I understand that you called on Meta CEO Zuckerberg to put Bitcoin on Mehta's balance sheet, but Meta shareholders rejected a proposal to add Bitcoin to the company's treasury, and that vote means Meta will keep its 72%. billion dollars in cash off the crypto track, but it is a sharp contrast to other companies that are embracing Bitcoin.

And while we're on that topic, companies like Apple X, Airbnb, and Google are in early talks with crypto firms about using stablecoins.

So give us your take on Circle's recent IPO and the opportunity when it comes to stablecoins.

Yes, so there's, there's clearly a lot of demand for stablecoins.

I think that demand is almost going to exclusively be internationally.

Um, most people in the United States, their, their Visa cards work, um, and so to me for people in the United States, the answer is just simple, it's Bitcoin.

Um, for people internationally in dictatorship regimes, there's.

Demand to have dollars.

It's basically the digital euro dollar.

So that's why Tether has had so much success.

They go out into these third world countries and they sell the dollar, and then that's benefited the United States because Tether is one of the largest buyers of US Treasuries, and they're an uneconomic buyer because they have a lot of dollars and they're able to earn.

Yield by giving those dollars to Canner and putting them in treasuries and so that to me is where the demand is and you know, it's great that we're having um legislation pop in, but you know, to me, uh, you know, when it comes to circle, they've obviously had some success, but um they've had a lot less success in selling internationally, and I think that's where the true long-term demand is for stables.

Yeah, and Matt, I do hope my visa does work here in the US.

That is a reminder that I need to pay my bill, but I do want to shift the focus on over to you.

So Strive has undergone a major change since we last spoke.

Strive Asset Management merged with ASA entities to launch a public Bitcoin treasury company.

Now I know that you've said most Bitcoin treasury companies are valued based on how much Bitcoin they hold.

Your strategy is to outperform Bitcoin itself.

So tell us how.

Yeah, so, as you know, we've talked about, we've been very bullish on Bitcoin treasury companies and corporate Bitcoin adoption at large, and where we are right now is less than 1% of publicly traded companies on Bitcoin.

And you look at two things.

You look at the fiat debt crisis.

The dollar is in my view, the days of the reserve currency are numbered, and I think this last week, uh, basically the collapse of Doge and this new big beautiful bill that's going to add trillions of dollars to the deficit shows the path we're on.

We're on a path of the dollar going away as a reserve currency.

Secondarily, AI is going to disrupt corporations in a major, major way.

And to me, the answer for both of those things is corporate adoption of Bitcoin in a major way.

And so that's one of the reasons why Strive adopted corporate Bitcoin strategy, but we're not just going to do the beta play we're.

You issue equity or debt to buy to buy Bitcoin.

We will do those things we're an asset manager and my background is generating alpha, and so we laid out a handful of alpha strategies to actually outperform Bitcoin over the long run.

When, when I say the long run, think about it as a market cycle, a 3 to 5 year period where we will deploy strategies to outperform Bitcoin in addition to doing things to develop a Bitcoin war chest.

Yeah, and building on what you just said, I understand you put most of your net worth of Bitcoin back in 2016, so that's some serious early adoption there.

But when you look ahead to the next 10 years, tell me about the so-called path to prosperity for some key investment themes, as you mentioned, AI and also energy.

Yes, so, so our view from an investment perspective is 3 things matter.

It's AI, Bitcoin, and energy, but from actually putting money to work.

It's really, it's really about Bitcoin.

Bitcoin and, and data centers maybe as, as a secondary theme, but AI is gonna disrupt.

And so when I think about AI, AI is something that every single person should be using on a daily basis, integrating in understanding your understanding that so you actually are powerful into the new world, but from where do you put your money to work to prepare for that.

That you put your money to work in Bitcoin, but, but your focus should be on those three things.

And as far as which nations end up prospering the most, it's going to be the ones that can actually get more energy.

And so that's why my hope and my push and our push is to get more energy in the United States because it's going to be critically important to power the compute needed for both AI and also for Bitcoin.

OK, Matt, well, we will have to leave it there, but thank you so much for joining us this morning and come visit us at our New York studio next time you're in town.

We'll definitely do that.

Thanks, Remy.