# The Battle for Crypto Market Structure and Legal Clarity

**Podcast:** The Milk Road Show
**Published:** 2026-04-09

## Transcript

In Washington, D.C., community bank lobby, as opposed to the large bank lobby, are distinct.
They're different from each other.
They have different organizations that represent them.
They're all a member of one big umbrella organization, but they generally have different policy objectives, and they also have huge political operations.
What's up, everybody?
It's LG News set here, and welcome to the Milk Road Show, the daily crypto show that is counting the days until all-time high.
Even if it feels like we're counting backwards.
Today is April 9th, 2026.
We're recording on April 7th.
This is a pivotal month for crypto in a way that we will feel for decades.
In fact, today's guest told me that this is really a once-in-a-decade opportunity to get some kind of bipartisan legal framework for crypto, meaning that if the Clarity Act doesn't pass, it may literally never actually happen, and that the deadline is looming in just a few weeks.
Adam Meinhart, head of public policy at Chainlink, joins me today to talk market structure, what it really takes to get things.
This thing through what the effects will be in either scenario, and he's also here to discuss a very underrated feature of crypto.
Adam, welcome to the show, man.
Hey, thanks, LG.
Great to be here.
Okay, so you were telling me right now, what is the office you sit in?
I need to up your credibility here because we have a lot of speculators, fund managers telling us what they think about Clarity, but nobody's got more authority than you.
So tell us, where do you sit?
I sit in Washington, D.C., right in between geographically the White House.
In Capitol Hill, I'm working out of the Blockchain Association's offices, have an office right there.
A lot of other companies, many you've had on the show, have offices here, and the building's kind of become a little bit of the crypto building here in D.C.
So probably 10 to 15 companies that you know very well are here.
Other companies that want to see this thing pass through, I assume.
Exactly.
Adam, what's the mood right now?
Obviously, there are bigger stories in the world, and we've covered them many times on the show, but this thing is still coming up.
What is kind of the sentiment on the chances of this going through soon?
I'd say nervous optimism.
There has been so much time spent on this yield issue between the exchanges and the banks about the ability to pay rewards or not, that there's a sense that we're getting close to some form of agreement on that that could allow the bill to move forward.
But as of this moment, we have not seen the language for the bill yet, so there's hope that both sides, the exchanges and the banks, will like it enough to say, let's do this.
So I'd say nervous energy, optimism, that we start moving forward here.
Who's the biggest holdup these days?
Because I know the updates have been kind of washed through the news because there's just so much more happening.
But are we seeing more resistance still from the exchange side, or is it the banks?
It's pushing a little too hard.
Kind of where do you sit there?
I mean, you're working at Chainlink, so I feel like you'll be on the crypto side.
But give us an honest take as best you can.
Definitely.
The banks have pushed extremely hard to prevent anything that looks like yield or rewards from being paid by any exchange on platform.
It very much is a competitive issue for them, particularly for smaller banks that really chase deposits with interest rates.
And frankly...
And frankly, don't want to pay higher rates.
It really would undercut their profitability.
So the banks wanting to drive a hard deal has been a major impediment to this.
The exchanges clearly are at the table trying to do what's best for them, trying to make a good deal for themselves here.
But it's really the banks that have really put their foot down and have really reached for, I think in many of our views, kind of unreasonable.
An unreasonable endpoint that really would hurt U.S.
consumers.
I mean, the idea that you can't get paid yield on static USDC balances seems really anti-competitive.
So, I mean, I'll leave it there.
But I think, yes, you're right.
I'm in this industry.
That's really where we're coming from.
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Has there been – you've been on the Hill, I think you were telling me, your entire career.
Is there any precedent for – maybe you can just help me understand how bills pass, bipartisan bills pass.
And any precedent for other laws where there is a clear kind of triangle between, like, the lawmakers.
And the incumbent industry that has done things a certain way for a long time.
And then the newcomers in the industry that have carved out a whole new thing.
And I guess the lawmakers are kind of just playing – are just trying to balance everyone's interests here.
It's very common.
We see this all the time across any industry where there is an incumbent and an innovator.
Whether it's healthcare, energy, education policy, transportation.
Obviously, we're seeing this in AI in how data is moved now.
So, very common.
And I would let the listeners know that there's over 10,000 bills introduced each Congress.
That's a two-year period.
Probably less than 200 substantive bills will actually get signed by the president.
So, a very small percentage of legislation that gets introduced that you hear about actually gets to some form of substantive discussion.
Where you're actually taking time out of – Senators, daily days, senior people in the White House, Treasury, really negotiating.
So, very rare that the crypto industry and crypto legislation is getting so much airtime.
But very common in terms of dealing with innovation for any industry.
It really is – it really comes down to a competitive moat that a lot of incumbents use legislation to enshrine.
That you really do have a regulatory capture going on.
So – You see that with the banking industry.
Who usually comes out on top?
You know, I don't want to be myopic here.
I would say usually it is the incumbents.
And it's usually – it usually hinges on two factors.
One, a real connection to voters.
A real grassroots connection to people in their town, state, city.
And with banks, particularly small banks, you have that.
They're usually community banks.
50 to 100 employees.
Maybe in, say, like, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The local congressman or senator may actually know people who work at the bank.
They may have known people who have worked at the bank for years.
That sort of very intense relationship model doesn't exist in a lot of industries.
Banking has it.
Labor unions have it as well.
The other issue is the political side of it, which is campaign cash.
And I think crypto definitely had a huge advantage.
And the last – I don't know.
I don't know if it's a good thing or not.
But I think crypto has really been a big part of the election cycle.
We have seen banks really come to the table with more money and upping their game on the political side, which is really investing money in reelecting members of Congress.
So for those two – those are the two levers, your grassroots connections and campaign contributions in terms of influencing people.
So banks have definitely upped their game on the latter.
And they definitely have an advantage on the grassroots side.
I think crypto is really – I think crypto is really on the side, though, of consumers here.
And I think if people understood this and they're so frustrated at getting 25 bips or less on their checking account when they could get more elsewhere, and this is just one option of many that already exist, it feels nonsensical.
Right.
Is this – so maybe you can help me kind of connect a few dots because we do – so much of what we featured in the last like six months to two years, I'd say, on the show on Milk Road.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think one of the things that is really really cool to me, and I think that's really important to me and other crypto publications as well, is the institutional bid for crypto.
And I know that there's not like – the banks pushing back are not necessarily the JP Morgans, the Black Rocks.
But to me, I've always seen all that.
I'm like, that's just one big party.
They're all one group of people.
Yeah.
The people that run the banks and run the funds and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
about the yield they just don't want to lose out to that um but to me it's like day after day we're seeing headlines like fidelity's hiring all these asset managers blackrock this jp morgan's gonna launch a coin blah blah blah can't everyone's adopting can't all these different um uh institutional adoptions and yet the bank it feels to me like it's the same people that are trying to stop the actual advent of this i mean i i agree with you and i would the point i would make is that when you look at the banking industry it is very much not monolithic you have within the g-sibs the large bank group the eight g-sibs two are custodians bank of new york and state street two are really almost pure investment banks uh goldman sachs and morgan stanley not as much retail exposure the retail exposure ones are bank of america and wells fargo that really are trying to bring in deposits as a way to fund loans so even across large banks you have a variety of approaches on how important this issue is on yield i think where it does become concentrated is for community banks whose model is really bringing deposits at a lower rate and lend at a higher rate that's the business model there's not no investment banking there's no m a advisory it's basically you know it's a simple balance sheet we want to we want to bring money in at a lower interest rate lend it out higher and that margin is where they live and die and there's a lot more small banks and they tend to be very politically powerful again for those those two reasons got it okay that makes sense that's a good way to kind of kind of explain it yeah i never thought about you were talking about the grassroots um representatives right that it's like in their jurisdictions like a lot of those small banks are going to be like don't let this thing go through man you're going to crush us you know because they're not they're not those bigger entities that necessarily have all these different you know parts of them or you know people that are going to launch and in washington dc yeah community bank lobby as opposed to the large bank lobby are distinct they're they're different from each other they have different organizations that represent them they're all member of one big umbrella organization but they generally have different policy objectives and they also have huge political operations while they are small banks they are not small politically the community bank lobby in dc is extremely well organized and extremely powerful and when you have members of congress who go home and meet with their local banker and five or six employees who may live a couple blocks from them and they their kids go to the same school it's it's a different influence operation it's very real and tangible i never thought about it that way we got to get somebody from that lobby on or somebody from that group on i want to i want to talk to them and you make it sound like it's like dairy farmers of america or something something you're like it sounds so innocent on the surface but their their strength is so is so powerful you know don't mess with them 100 i mean you know labor unions is a good way to think about it too you have union workers in every district and a lot of their power emanates from that the community bank lobby never really thought of that um okay let's let's shift back to to the probability of this actually happening and what happens whether it does or doesn't you called this the once in a decade opportunity for our industry what do you mean by that right now the uh the political environment in dc is perfectly set up for this to get through you have a white house that is very pro-innovation and has shown a lot of interest in working with the digital assets industry both the crypto folks as well as the trad5 folks that want to do crypto so you have a very pro-innovation white house and then on the hill the republicans control both chambers and have both wanted to pass these bills the house has the senate definitely wants to so really what we're talking about is needing seven democrat seven democratic senators in the us we're talking about.
You need to get 60, not 50 in the Senate.
So I don't think we're going to see an environment like this for some time.
So right now, the crux of getting market structure done is really getting those seven Democratic senators plus the 53 Republicans.
Maybe you lose one or two here or there on the floor.
So maybe seven to 10 to support it.
That is as low of a political bar as you can get in this town.
Because if you have a Democratic White House or you have a Democratic House or Senate where you could have a Maxine Waters or Elizabeth Warren instead of Tim Scott or French Hill, the approach to these issues becomes very, very different.
Their perspective on it will not be everything that industry wants.
It'll be far from it.
I think you'd expect to see a very, very different political environment then.
So right now, it feels like this is as easy as it's going to get.
If we don't see it now, I'm not sure when we will.
Man, that's the second time in a couple of days that we get that scary kind of premonition.
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Would, but let, okay, let's assume that that, okay, let's, let's talk, worst case scenario before we talk best case scenario, because we always want to hear best case scenario.
We want to be bullish, but let's, let's start with the worst case.
So let's continue with the thread that you just outlined.
Um, and let's also, uh, assume another terrible scenario that the current war in Iran drags on and it becomes the worst case scenario, but fuck, I don't know.
I don't want to go there, but anyways, you know what I mean?
That it's like, this thing's not over.
There's no taco, nacho, whatever.
It's just that he drags on in some kind of horrific way.
And the clarity act, no, doesn't get those votes, doesn't get those reps and it's gone.
And then we go to the Democrat, uh, democratic swing in the midterms.
What then, what then for our industry, Adam?
It becomes, it becomes a regulatory led approach to getting market clarity for digital assets.
We're already seeing it from Paul Atkins at the SEC.
We're seeing it from Mike Selig.
We're seeing it from the, uh, the three banking regulators, FDIC, OCC and fed as well as NCUA.
Um, so it's really a regulatory, led approach, uh, which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing.
Regulations are easier to overturn than laws.
So if I had to take my choice, it would be, let's get laws on the books.
Laws are very hard to change once they're on the books.
As you can see with passing clarity, passing a law to undo it would just be almost impossible.
Right now, overturning a regulation can be a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, can be done a little bit more easily.
It's, it's still a, it's still a challenge to do it, but it can be done.
But I think what we'll see if the house goes democratic, if we don't see this bill move anytime soon, if the Iran war lingers, we already have the shutdown at, uh, Homeland security, just hanging over a lot here, uh, budget issues, et cetera.
Um, I think you're going to see the SEC and CFTC provide as much clarity as they can.
We've already seen them do it with recent announcements on defining what a digital asset is when it's security, when it's, when it's a commodity, we're looking at the innovation exemption coming out of the SEC as well.
Uh, and then we we're looking at the, uh, CFTC going deep in this industry, um, from their perspective.
So I think we're looking at, at reg, a reg heavy approach, which I don't think is an awful outcome.
It's certainly better than nothing.
I would say.
And I think they can do a lot.
Are the institutions kind of planning for this?
It feels that way that it's like, they're kind of even they're hedging for either scenario, right?
Because they're still from what the news we track, it's like, they're still doing this pretty by the book, right?
Uh, well, I think what you see from most companies is a two-prong engagement.
You in you're engaging on the hill with your objectives on market structure and the narrow things you may want, as well as trying to get the bill over the line, but then you're also engaging with the agencies.
So you're working the SEC, the CFTC, educating them on, on what you're doing, what your perspective is slightly nuanced from what you are with Capitol hill, but you're doing the same sort of education and advocacy game.
Um, it's prudent planning for any organization.
Most big organizations will look at DC as a whole and plan where to engage with.
So I think right now you see people doing both.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
They, they think in much, much longer terms than, uh, they do think in decades, typically from what I've understood of institutions.
So yeah.
And the SEC and now the CFTC have functionally created entities within their agencies to engage with industry on crypto policy issues.
So they've been doing that for, uh, months, almost a year at the SEC.
So they've been doing a lot of this engagement and that's what we're starting to see with the rulemaking that's coming out.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
That makes sense.
That's this it's it's you're painting a good picture for me that this has been, this has been in the works.
The institutional bit has been in the works for way before even this bill was kind of there and it will continue in ways with or without it.
Um, it's just more in the short term and I guess probably more of a retail effect as well, probably a blocker of innovation as well.
There's just, if it's overly regulated, uh, in that, in that swing.
Yeah.
Um, okay.
So let's talk best case scenario.
Okay.
Let's say tomorrow, um, a ceasefire.
Great.
Everybody's happy.
We're all gonna shake hands and we'll rebuild the infrastructure.
We destroyed, uh, get the ships going through or shaking hands in, in person.
Everybody's happy.
And, um, clarity, like boom, you get those votes.
We're through by end of April off to the races.
Like you can, you can offer a yield to your clients.
No problem.
Um, what then?
Yep.
Um, I mean, obviously that's an extremely bullish scenario for the bill overall.
Um, I think it's possible.
I think if we achieve an agreement on yield, maybe as soon as this week, then we'd still have to work through a couple other issue sets, including defy issues in particular, which are always tricky politically, as well as ethics issues.
And I think ethics issues in some ways are more challenging than the yield issue.
The yield issue is a, is kind of two sides of the industry, really fighting it out on a competitive mode.
The S the ethics issue really touches on the Trump's, the Trump family's, um, interests in digital assets and Democrats desire to constrain them.
So there you kind of put in a pure political bucket where these other issues are really, they're really about policy and law competition.
Ethics issue really becomes a political issue.
It's really hard to map issues out that are purely political.
There's such a heavy emotional component to them.
And you can start to see that you could see a world where they become campaign issues.
So that I would say ethics becomes a wild card in all of this.
Uh, I don't think anyone really knows where that's going to end up.
I know there's probably people in the white house and Democrats each with a very different view on what they want, but in terms of what can get you again, coming back to those seven Democrats, what can get you those seven Democratic candidates in the fall.
So I put ethics, I put a big asterisk next to ethics, assuming we get yielded.
Right, right, right, right, right.
And then the DeFi one digit.
Is there an asterisk there as well?
And we had, we did.
I'll, I'll, I love it with you as well.
We had Jake Trubisky on last week, um, from nuclear policy center to also kind of give us a, you know, also on the ground view.
Um, and he was really pointing to that.
He was like, listen, like you are really going to hamper a lot of innovation here.
Yeah.
If you make developers responsible for not doing that.
I've never heard a buster about my entire life, making money.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
not for assets that they never have custody of um you know so i feel like is that is that a similar sentiment to kind of how you see it it is love jake uh jake works in the same building i'm in now i figured love their team over there that they're they're building um yeah the issue of developer protections is very much a red line within the industry that exists and if without that that i also put an asterisk next to that if you get to yield if you get an agreement on yield and then some sort of backdoor deal is made that undercuts protections for software developers and writing code like here you know the bill could take another uh u-turn here so that that's a tricky issue and jake's right right to flag that as a as a as as something we're all laser focused on as well who who you would be most against that like is is this also the democrats that are trying to be convinced to sign this thing or is like like is who particularly yeah if that even is a question like who doesn't like that yeah i mean on one side obviously you have all the companies that employ developers and who don't want to be criminally liable for a code that's put out into space that's then used um if it's used nefariously uh on the other side you really have you have a group of democrats that very much wants to arm law enforcement with as many tools as possible to go after bad actors in the space i mean clearly i mean with drift we're seeing that so i think i think that's where they're coming from the issue i think that many are seeing and i want to be careful how i characterize this is the depth of knowledge required to understand what is really a computer science and legal issue wrapped into one that's very very complicated and relies on concepts such as what truly is decentralization what really is custody is very hard to get two people talking about the same thing productively and i think that's what we're i think we're seeing a lot of um challenge and having these discussions and agreeing on what is necessary for law enforcement to have i think the view of many of us is that we're not going to be able to do that we're not going to be able to how that actually he put all of that into baylor and then in the end it will give you someone that is there you know who has a fundamentally strong didn't he probably will you be able to Western that theory or just question how you would like to get good legal action Allison Imran what did he do yes that's right in the beginning when the president couldn't deliver on the issues of everybody's relationship but honestly i think that's that's what i think um i think it's not i think i think one of the reasons why he's ultimately believing in i believe in legal norms and outsourcing is coming forward is because people would tend to probably simply say well you didn't even care whether you were a businessman or you know anything similar to industry you were a billbank.
Now if you're dealing with scary times and diseases or you have even longer然後 if though i would still be involved if you hadn't been involved you would have been duplicative, unnecessary, potentially harmful.
So that's really where the rub is coming in.
It's probably, I can imagine too from, you know, policy is typically or can be so slow that I feel like it's probably hard for lawmakers to see the difference between a Ross Ulbricht and a Tornado Cash developer or a drift hacker, you know what I mean?
Or a Sam Bankman Freit, you know what I mean?
It's like, it's kind of hard to, you don't understand enough of the nuances is probably really hard to understand what the difference is between all these different bad actors.
There's such a variety of them.
And some that, you know, many of us, some of those people, we don't consider bad actors, people that are in the industry and, you know, Tornado Cash is a good example, right?
Exactly.
And all of our companies depend on people coming up with novel products, writing code and putting it out there for consumers to use in a certain way.
If it is used for a bad purpose, should the person who designed the code, be criminally liable for how someone else could use it?
So I think for us, the answer is definitely not.
For others, there's questions of intent of if you knowingly created it, there's all these like certain levels of granularity that come into the conversation, make it really, really tough.
Is this, I feel like there's so much precedent though.
And I think about it of like somebody made a product and people used it poorly.
So are they liable or not?
Like McDonald's and the 80s, like the guy got a heart attack and then he's like, oh, it's McDonald's fault.
They shouldn't have made bad food.
Exactly.
I mean, the one where they spilled the hot coffee.
The coffee, yeah.
Landmark case.
Yeah, exactly.
But you have this, you know, you have this in the gun industry, you know, how guns are used, cars.
I mean, lots of product liability issue, where it begins and where it ends.
So from that perspective, it's a great point.
It's not novel in many ways to the industry.
Deciding where that line, of liability begins and ends is something that, that policymakers are always trying to figure out.
I think what makes this more challenging is the technological component here.
And some of the, the concepts that play decentralization when custody occurs are hard things to understand, and they themselves require deep learning and understanding.
So, and again, DC is an environment where things are generally done in 30 minute meetings.
And these require really, really weeks of study to really understand the nuances.
Wait, what do you mean they're done in 30 minute meetings?
What does that mean?
I mean, the, the engagement a lot in this city is often dealt with in 30 minute meetings on the hill where you'll hit your, your top line points.
You'll have a discussion and you're really not going to go down to say the 5,000 foot level.
You can on follow-up meetings, but this would be an issue where people really have to devote.
A significant amount of time, not just to market structure overall, not just to defy overall, but to developer protections and how they are dealt with by law enforcement authorities.
So, you know, that's, that's probably, you know, 10 hours a week for a couple of weeks, really understanding it, talking to legal professionals, talking to people like Jake, talking to people on the other side and law enforcement and trying to figure out what's, what's right here.
Like, do law enforcement really lack the tools that they're saying they do?
Or does industry, is industry right, is really by saying that the tools you're asking for are duplicative, unnecessary, and would leave software developers unprotected.
So, you know, these are tough, tough technical issues.
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Speaking of consumers, and retail in this space, you, I feel like you have a take that I hadn't really thought of too much, especially coming from somebody on the Hill, right?
Somebody who works in policy heavily about, I guess it's kind of a competitive advantage for crypto, but it's also something that hopefully has some kind of effect on how lawmakers see this industry differently than a lot of others.
Please tell me about that.
Yeah, yeah, no, definitely.
You know, a lot is made about the crypto user being a political, political force and, you know, you know, perhaps the, the industry side may overstate the other side may understate.
But I think the, the, the one aspect that is unique to crypto, if you look at it as a product is that the users of crypto are fanatical.
There is a cultural underpinning of crypto users that I would consider to kind of sports fandom that you almost feel like you're joining a team.
You love Solana, you love Bitcoin, you love, you know, the Link Marines, XRP Army.
It's fanatical.
You have, you know, people wear t-shirts, they get tattoos.
So that emotional connection really ups your political theme and your ability to have political influence.
I don't think you see that with iPhone users.
We all have iPhones, but there's not a whole lot of people who are fanatical about their iPhone.
They love it, but not in the same way.
I think a lot of people love crypto.
So I, I think it's deeper.
I think for many, it goes down to your, down to kind of these core rights you hold.
I think they, they really embrace that.
And then it kind of this like cult like status it has makes it a unique issue.
If you're a politician and you see crypto people coming in, these people may just vote on crypto.
They really, really care about it.
So if you're a, if you're a member of Congress in Wisconsin, I'm sure you're wearing Green Bay Packers gear.
Throughout the year.
And that's going to help convince voters to support you.
So I think crypto has a similar edge here.
I think politicians really have to recognize that this just really isn't about crypto per se.
There's a cultural underpinning to it.
That's strong.
And that really ups the political influence of it.
If crypto was a sports team, which one would it be?
What kind of fans are we like?
I mean, I got to say, well, Las Vegas Raiders.
So it's kind of where it is.
Where my brain goes a little bit irreverent rough around the edges, likes to push things in a different way.
So I think the Davis family, I think Al Davis and the Davis family would be, would be very representative of the crypto industry.
All right, let's pull it up.
This is, let's pull it.
Let's look at it.
This is, this is who, this is who Adam says that we're like, all right, is these, these, this is us.
This is, this is the net.
You know what?
Crypto conferences.
I used to go to NFT ones.
It definitely feels this way.
This is, we're definitely a little bit.
Yep.
Here we go.
A little Homer Simpson in there.
Getting the chiefs fan.
Yeah.
So if you're looking at that as a member of Congress, you're kind of like, all right, these aren't just people using a product for people who have a strong cultural tie to it and they may act differently.
So I think some politicians are seeing that.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
I'll take that.
Is this, um, I have a more political question for you and something I've wondered for a while.
I remember the day when, uh, you know, maybe two years ago or pre-election and Trump was speaking at an event and somebody asked him like, Hey, what do you think of Bitcoin?
And he was like, yeah, I love Bitcoin.
And then suddenly it's like something flipped for them.
And suddenly a huge part of his reelection, um, was about, uh, or his campaign was about Bitcoin.
Was that some D D D?
Are you kind of, kind of describing the, the same thing where they saw an opportunity as camps on opportunity to really kind of pull in this kind of more crypto crowd, um, and get votes.
100%.
It's, um, it's a big community, both from a grassroots perspective.
Uh, I think, uh, stand with crypto has shown that there, there are crypto users who want to be politically active.
There's also a fundraising base to be tapped there.
Um, I don't want to be naive and not, not mention that, but that's the reality of politics in the U S is it costs, money to run for elections.
Um, so yeah.
And I do think the cult, the culture on underpinnings, it's, it is a great base to have within your camp.
So I think, um, it was very politically astute to reach out to crypto in, in the way that they did.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
Mm.
How was, you did mention a point to me earlier about how, um, the Trump family's, uh, crypto endeavors, uh, have potentially impacted the progress of something like clarity.
So maybe we can just end on that as something, that I hadn't really thought about.
No, totally.
World Liberty Financial, strong connections to the Trump family will come into focus when we talk about the ethics part of the market structure.
So I think, unfortunately, I think a lot of Democrats want to use that as a reason to potentially slow down the bill.
Um, what I would say is if, if I'm the Democrats, the way I would think about it would be, we need the bill because this bill would subject, any company operating in the U S to the same rules and regulations, consumer protection, uh, market regulation as well.
So, um, I do think though, that you're going to see a lot of folks seize on those sorts of crypto connections, not in a helpful way.
And I, I hope that doesn't become another asterisk on this bill like yield has become, um, that could potentially block it.
So, um, TBD on how ethics is ultimately addressed.
But I think you're going to see a lot of people bring up, um, the Trump family's efforts in that area.
So, um, for better or for worse, I, I, I, uh, I disagree with the strategy.
I think you're better off saying we're passing this bill.
So everyone in the country is subject to these rules and standards that can protect consumers.
Why wouldn't we want everyone subject to that?
So, um, I think they have to, I personally, I think Democrats have to be careful.
On that point.
So we'll see how it plays out.
Yeah.
That's a kind of rehashing the recent past, but, you know, in a trade-off for what would be a lot of progress basically, uh, which is, which is very much needed because you have so many other companies and people waiting on that before they can, you know, deploy products to people.
Well, at, at the core of these bills, the genius act and market structure clarity are really consumer protection bills.
These are really setting up frameworks for how these products are regulated.
So the idea that we would not want to protect consumers because of what is largely a political issue, you know, it feels so, um, myopic, it feels so phony in many ways.
So hopefully it doesn't come to that.
That makes a lot of sense.
Well, Adam, thank you for, uh, all the clarity about clarity.
Uh, it's been great to chat with you, man.
Um, always great to hear, hear from people on the ground.
Uh, I think that that is our best source of information.
Um, you know, I wish we had this, I wish we had this Citrini analyst on as well, whether that's a real story or not, but, uh, to talk about the war, but I feel like we're getting the same thing in terms of, of policy from you, uh, in a much safer way as well for, for the person involved.
Well, really appreciate you having me on, hit me up.
If you ever need anything on DC, I'm a, Oh man, I feel like we're going to hit you up pretty soon, man.
I feel like this thing, when's it, when's this supposed to pass?
What's the date?
Well, they're talking about a markup in committee next, uh, in two weeks and then the Senate floor and potentially the house.
So you were looking at, at April, May, maybe into June.
If again, if things come together on yield, defy and ethics.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
So it's, it's, it's like pretty much now this has got to happen now.
Yeah.
Those, those 30 minute conversations are currently happening on the Hill.
Yeah.
They're running around talking.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Awesome.
Well, I think we'll definitely try and get you back on to at least whatever ends, ends up happening in the next two months.
Uh, we'd definitely love to hear from you again and have you break it down for us.
Love it.
Love what you guys do again.
Thanks for being on.
Appreciate it.
Thanks Adam.
Thanks.
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