in New York morning trade, we are looking at Bitcoin lower after surging back towards that $67,000 level yesterday.
Now there has been some renewed optimism out of Washington DC and this does come after Treasury Secretary Scott that and declared that lawmakers are at the one year line on the long awaited clarity.
Now that's an urging Congress to pass it before the August recess, but behind the market.
For the legislative reality on Capitol Hill does face several hurdles.
The White House says Trump has signed off on a historic ethics provision to pass the landmark crypto bill but with Democrats yet to see the exact tax.
Now the package does put the DOJ in charge of enforcing the bill with federal officials banned from issuing digital assets and this according to the block.
Well joining me this morning to weigh in is Claud Massador, executive director of the Blockchain Foundation.
Clab, good morning.
Great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
So there are a lot of headlines that are coming through right now, but when it comes to clarity, where is the progress right now?
And is the glass half full or empty?
Well, the good news is both Democrats and Republicans in Congress want to get this bill done.
There is consensus that clarity is needed.
The challenge is compromise, compromise, compromise.
The, the, I'm optimistic.
I'm encouraged that the White House is open to a conversation around language around ethics.
They weren't before, so that's good news.
Congratulations to Senators Moreno.
And Lomes for negotiating that, but Congress has authority over legislation.
They will determine what the language on ethics is, and it doesn't sound like the language that Democrats want is the same language that the White House is pushing.
So ultimately.
Congress will make a decision, but I'm, I, I think we can still get this over the line, you know.
The most important thing right now is bipartisanship and is and compromise.
How can the crypto industry start really figuring out who's who?
Who who's where the sad reality is it's not just Democrats that we have to bring to our side.
The issues around illicit finance and developer protections are a big issue for Republicans and even this issue around yield has not been solved even though we have a compromise.
So what is the vote to 60 votes?
It's a challenging vote.
It's a challenging vote because you need, you need votes on both sides, and we need to start counting those votes and we need to see who's who and who's where.
Yes, absolutely, Clave, you highly lighted the key points of contention and compromise, depending on who you ask, is a very challenging word.
But as we head into month end, we are fast approaching that recess in August, so we do have A timeline as well as schedule to keep, and after that all eyes will continue to be on the nation's capital, but we're counting down to the midterm elections.
So when you look at the calendar, why is this so important?
Well, before the August recess is important, but this is not a popularity contest.
This is a legislative process and there are steps involved.
The calendar is.
Has that run out in Congress yet so can we actually make that?
I think it's August 4th before the Senate goes out and get a Senate vote.
I'm not sure, but this Congress doesn't enter the end of this year, and Senator Toon, Senator Tim Scott, the House has already voted.
We can still get this done.
I'm hesitant to put arbitrary, you know.
You know, clamps on us like, oh my God, we have to do it by August research.
We have a lot of work to do.
We have a lot of work to do with Republicans and Democrats.
These issues around yield, around developer protections, illicit finance, ethics, they're big issues.
This is a landmark legislation.
We need this legislation and the good news is, as Senator Mark Warner pointed out last, last week.
We need to get this done right but we have to make sure we work through these issues and as as the industry has to start counting our votes lining up our champions, we can't lose somebody because they say oh I'm good on ethics but I'm not good on on on on the issues around illicit finance we have a lot of work to do.
I'm not, I'm not concerned about this August deadline.
I am concerned about getting it done this Congress before midterms, preferably, but.
This Congress is what we need.
Yes, and we do not have a crystal ball, so we do not know when things will actually move forward.
But as we continue to monitor the situation, I know that you're on the ground in the nation's capital.
You have conversations with stakeholders.
So realistically speaking, where do you find the key points of contention and where are your concerns right now?
My biggest concern is making sure this is bis.
Partisan again Congress has authority over legislation.
Only bipartisan legislation can move forward.
We have to take this conversation outside of the Washington bubble and also outside of industry insiders.
That's why in August I'm actually hosting an event on Martha's Vineyard.
You may say, oh my God, Martha's Vineyard, that sounds she she, but in August is where a lot of political leaders gather in the vineyard and we're going to have a conversation with members of Congress, with state officials.
So that we can have this conversation beyond beyond Washington hopefully in August on August 13th from Martha's Vineyard will be celebrating a Senate vote but if if not, we'll be talking about how do we get there before the end of this Congress.
Bipartisanship is so important when you look at those who oppose not just clarity crypto, they're doing their work.
They're actually going out there member by member.
And making the case we have to be doing the same thing on a bipartisan basis right now Republicans have a supermajority, so I'm glad the White House is on board on ethics.
Thank God we have Senator Loomis there.
I'm disappointed we'll lose her at the end of this year to actually do that work.
I know Senator Tillis is, is part of the conversation, and on the Democratic side, Gallego, also Brooks, Gillibrand and others are doing that important work, but we have to keep it.
Quite bipartisan because we're going to pass market structure.
Clarity is too important and we have so many other pieces of legislation to get to.
We need to get this out of the way to actually make sure the future of digital finance can actually be here, be competitive, and show that we can grow an industry here in America.
Yes, and finally, before I let you go, I do want to expand on that last point that you just made, Clav.
So outside of the Washington bubble, we're here.
On Wall Street, but also Main Street, because we're talking about retail investors in addition to institutional investors.
So as we head into the rest of the year, of course we're going to monitor what's happening on the regulatory landscape, but there's also innovation as well as adoption as well as price action.
So where do you think we are right now?
Well, I think we have, we have a ways to go, but I think we've done a lot of great work in terms of connecting with small enterprises, small financial institutions.
I think retail investors are looking at things like tokenization and those opportunities.
So in terms of where we are beyond the institutional clients, beyond the big players, that's what we'll be talking about on Martha's Vineyard on August 13th.
We'll be talking about small opportunities for small business where we are in terms of growth for tokenization and stablecoins.
We just had the, the deadline for rule making for the Genius Act and most of the.
Regulators missed that deadline, so we have a lot more work to do, but I'm optimistic this is a new industry and barely a decade out in terms of really coming up to coming up with a framework.
The entrance of traditional finance law JP Morgan, BNY Mellon City, Morgan Stanley getting has changed the landscape, changed the paradigm, but this is about the future of finance, and it's a big landscape, as you mentioned.
It's the institutional players, it's the large banks, it's the retail investors, but we've yet to see Main Street really get on board and that's why we have to pass clarity.
We need to.
We need some decisions on some big things like what's the security, what's the commodity, what are the disclosure rules and the like, but, but we also need to also get this in place so we can look at things like what energy and commerce can do around competitiveness.
So I'm optimistic about where we're headed and I I'm optimistic about where we are right now.
Well, Cleve, always great having you on the show.
Thank you so much for joining us here today and thank you so much for sharing your insights.
