The Exchanges

Q We have a public American stable coin, you know, issuer in circle. Now it feels like yes, regulatory. Clarity is important there, but having broader clarity around how tokens are treated by, you know, how the government actually views tokens feels like it could catalyze, you know, much more of an explosion in investment activity and new company formation and new use cases for tokens. Is that the right framework?

A I think that is the right framework because, like I said, stablecoin's a big important piece of the pie, um, and, and very low hanging fruit, by the way, to my mind. Um, but Crypto as an asset class is much broader. So when you say where do the industry players, where are the crypto investors, where do we want to see it? I don't think it's a monolith. I think crypto as it grows to a multi-trillion dollar asset class, like any multi-trillion dollar asset class, you have different factions. And I think some fairly and some really smart people think just take this, take this win and move on and don't worry about the rest. And I, I think that's a little, I see why they might think that if they think that It's this or nothing, but I don't, I think that's a false choice. I think that we can have both, and this is a really opportune moment to have both. Um, and I think the, the question that has beleaguered the industry really has been the question over securities, commodities, um, which agencies are gonna have jurisdiction. I think that's a bigger question, and I think it would be a real shame if we let this moment go to waste. You know, the irony, too, so you have some stablecoins, or only stablecoin companies, who are like, yep, genius act, and move on. They don't want to get dragged into this broader, um, kind of a more omnibus package, right, with the market structure legislation…

AI assessment note: “I think that is the right framework because, like I said, stablecoin's a big important”

Q What's your, how would you, how do you think about big companies getting excited about stable coins and thinking or, or institutions and being like, there's a lot of potential here. We should create our own stable coin versus we should just figure out how to leverage this technology. Where, where do you see the kind of line and opportunities?

A Well, look, we already have two very dominant stable coins, right? Already today. Um, Tether, USDT. And then we have USDC. Um, so clearly that's not winner take all. I mean, those two are both growing and they both have market share. So we think there will be stable coins like those that will have network effects. But we also think at the same time, there are some businesses that are just so big and just so important. And if they launched their own stable coin, um, we could also see that too. Um, I don't think we see a world where everyone, I think we get asked this question all the time. Is there going to be a world where every company has their own stable coins? Yeah. Um, we don't think so. We could be wrong, but that's not the view of how we see this evolving.

AI assessment note: “I don't think we see a world where everyone... has their own stable coins”

Q the timeline there? What, what are the different players? What do people want out of it? What, what is the core, you know, kind of, uh, crypto industry, and both on the investor side and, and company side want out of it? And, and what are, what, uh, who, who would, who would not want it to go through, At least how the, the crypto side has it in mind.

A Look, I think, I think everyone in the crypto industry wants the stable coin bill to go through and become law. I don't think there's really any question about that. The question is, do you go for both? Um, someone just described it to me as a, in a sports analogy, and I'll probably fumble that one, but it was like, do you go for the field goal or do you go for the touchdown? And the thing about after a field goal, you know, after a field goal, the other side gets the ball back. And I think Congress really operates in kind of six to 10 year windows. And, you know, it's on their mind, reform regulatory clarity for crypto right now. And I think the transformational bill for crypto right now is very much that market structure bill. We also want that stable coin bill. And we have this unique moment in time where we have bipartisan support for both bills. So personally, I say go for both of them. And worst case, you end up getting the stable coin bill only. Um, but I do think that's not the Most desirable outcome for the crypto industry. I think the crypto industry deserves, especially after years of uncertainty, both a clear message from Congress. I think Congress ought to do its job and pass both bills. And I especially think that because after the Supreme Court last summer, uh, in a case I said that this was the most important case for technology policy, not for just crypto, but …

AI assessment note: “I think everyone in the crypto industry wants the stable coin bill to go through”

Q We went through a period where crypto is being pushed offshore. We've heard over the last year that some crypto founders feel like they can come back to the States now, maybe actually have an office stateside. Are you seeing more and more momentum there with, with some of this positive regulatory movement? Uh, or is it, or are you still seeing momentum around, uh, Places offshore, Singapore, et cetera.

A I think, look, everywhere that you're going to want to develop does is going to have some rules that you're going to have to follow. When I hear founders who say there is no regular, it's often that there is no regulatory regime whatsoever. Sorry, Balaji, if you're watching. But, ah, I, I am seeing that onshoring a bit. We were kind of seeing the offshoring in an unfortunate way, but it's not only regulation that matters. It's hiring top talent. And certainly there's top talent right here in Silicon Valley and other places, um, in the world. I mean, you mentioned Singapore, Singapore has top talent to be sure, but you know, there's a lot going for the U S so we're still very optimistic and I don't think it, but we were getting to a very dangerous point with the crypto industry, um, had the likes of Gensler and others like him been left kind of to just do this. Now, fortunately the courts were pushing back. Um, so it wasn't a partisan issue. It was just the courts were starting to say, no, you've gone too far. I mean, I lost track now. I literally lost track of how many federal courts of all political persuasions, uh, and appointments ruled against Gensler's regime, and not just Gensler, but others like it, where you had very activist regulators, um, who were really far out of their lane. And, um, and you saw courts curbing back on that. So I think that was already We're in a da…

AI assessment note: “I, I am seeing that onshoring a bit.”