To win in this market, crypto founders need to track policy shifts better and faster than their competition. Our goal @variant is to help founders find edge, and policy is the new edge, so we're doubling down. I'm thrilled to have @sghazzal join the team as Policy Lead:
https://blog.variant.fund/policy-is-the-new-edge
World Liberty Financial will make it way harder to get market structure legislation done in the Senate, where we need 7 Democrats to vote yes, and for whom a pro-crypto vote will be politically challenging (to put it mildly) no matter what the bill says about policy. Happy fall.
Everyone in crypto should care about stablecoins.
The best way to bring millions of people onchain than replacing their tradfi payment account with a wallet.
Everyone in crypto should care about stablecoin legislation. Tell your Senator this matters 👇
https://x.com/standwithcrypto/status/1923142534856847634
Like many legal frameworks protecting economic interests, intellectual property law has become bloated and counterproductive.
But the core idea is valid: creators should be paid for their work or there will be no incentive to create.
IP law should be rebalanced, not eliminated.
If market structure legislation were ready, then it would be great to do alongside stablecoins.
But if stablecoin legislation is ready first — which seems likely given how fast it's moving and how few issues are left to solve — Congress should not delay.
Pass STABLE and GENIUS now!
The crypto market is a chaotic mix of novel investment theses, macro trends, gambling, and human psychology.
The crypto industry is a booming engine of innovation in the early days of revolutionizing the internet age.
The market is not the industry. The industry is up only.
For years, the SEC was unwilling to answer even simple questions like "are stablecoins securities?"
It's great to see the SEC give such a clear explanation as to why the answer is "no" under both the Howey and Reves tests.
This SEC is cleaning up the mess 🌟
https://x.com/davidsacks47/status/1908263063650001144
It's a good time for a narrative shift from memecoins back to utility anyway.
We're heading into a policy environment that should allow founders to build real products and services that have been "blocked by legal" for years.
Memes are fun, but so is rebuilding the internet 🙌
Outside counsel and consultants are shifting their view on doing crypto business in the USA at light speed.
Everyone expects a massive reduction in regulatory risk.
Nobody knows exactly what's going to happen, but it's enough that the new conventional wisdom is "stay here."
🇺🇸
President Trump will take office on January 20.
Crypto policy will immediately and significantly shift when new leaders take over the federal agencies.
Between now and then, the outgoing administration may be busy finalizing rules and filing enforcement actions.
Stay frosty 🥶
One way to understand the impact of the presidential election on crypto policy:
Trump would be like playing on easy mode, Harris like hard mode.
But it's the same game — working with Congress, fighting in the courts, etc. — and we'll win either way. Crypto isn't going anywhere.
The SEC spent years saying "tokens are securities."
Then last month they took it back, pretended they didn't say it at all, and fake apologized for the confusion it caused.
Sorry, but @atuminelli and I aren't buying it, so we told the truth 👇
https://blockworks.co/news/sec-wrong-about-crypto-asset-securities
1/ As U.S. regulators continue their war on crypto, many founders are thinking about geofencing as a compliance strategy.
It can work, but only if it's done right.
That’s why @dbarabander and I wrote this Practical Guide to Geofencing:
https://blog.variant.fund/newsletter-legal-regulatory-affairs
No one said rebuilding the global financial system would be easy, and hard things tend to hurt. Sentiment in crypto is scary bad right now.
But as Churchill said, "success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."
Keep grinding. In the end, we win.
The SEC sank to new lows yesterday.
Since day one, the SEC has said tokens *are* securities, even though that makes no sense as a matter of law.
Yesterday in the Binance case, they finally admit that's wrong — and gaslight a federal court about YEARS of their own arguments 🤯
h/t @iampaulgrewal for posting on X:
As you see settlements like eToro come out of the SEC and other regulators heading into their fiscal year end this month, just remember:
Settlements are not law.
They're just what someone was willing to pay to get out of an enforcement action—an economic decision to flee rather than fight.
The rest of us fight on.
Yesterday I asked "what questions do you have about crypto law and policy" on both Warpcast and X.
The engagement here was 1000x higher value. X was basically "why aren't my coins pumping?" Here we had substantive discussion about a handful of really interesting issues.
Bullish 🔥
Honestly feeling emotional after the first ever DeFi hearing in Congress today 🥹
I remember years ago when DeFi was like ten projects that no one thought would amount to anything. Now it's on full display in the halls of power in DC 🙌
This is *so* powerful from @atuminelli 🔥
