SmartCon 2025 featured presentations from more than 100 web3 pioneers and financial leaders, who gathered to highlight the theme,“From Crypto to Capitol Hill.” To delve deeper into the most groundbreaking topics from this year’s event, Nasdaq TradeTalks’ Jill Malandrino interviewed some of the most influential speakers on-site at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Pavilion.
Summer Mersinger is CEO of Blockchain Association, the leading nonprofit organization promoting innovative policies to advance the U.S. digital asset economy. Mersinger sat down with Malandrino to discuss the biggest opportunities for constructive engagement between innovators and regulators in the blockchain space.
With over 100 members including the industry’s top investors, companies, and projects, Blockchain Association supports a future-forward, pro-innovation national policy and regulatory framework for crypto in the U.S.
“We’re the unifying voice for the blockchain industry, mostly with policymakers in Washington, trying to get our policy to a place where we’re encouraging innovation,” Mersinger told Malandrino.
“We’re allowing these products and markets to come onshore and make sure that America is welcoming to this industry and not inadvertently creating laws or policies that shut the door on innovation.”
As a part of Crypto Week last July, Chainlink and Blockchain Association launched Tokenized in America, an industry resource ranking all 50 U.S. states in blockchain innovation. The state scorecard is designed to provide the clarity and tools state leaders need to proactively, meaningfully, and responsibly engage with digital assets.
Also during Crypto Week, the House approved three major bills – the CLARITY Act, the GENIUS Act, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act – which establish a clear regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States.
A landmark piece of legislation, the GENIUS Act creates a federal regulatory framework with strict consumer protections for fully collateralized payment stablecoins.
“It really opened up a framework for stablecoins in the United States,” Mersinger said.
“Not only does it provide the stablecoin issuers with some clarity, some certainty, in how they’re going to be regulated, but it provides consumer protections such as 1:1 reserves.”
Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov was at the White House to witness the GENIUS Act signed into law. Having enabled over $26 trillion in transaction value, Chainlink’s essential tokenization infrastructure supplies stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets with critical verifiable onchain data, proof of reserves, and cross-chain interoperability.
Working with agencies such as the CFTC, Mersinger’s focus is closing the education gap between regulators and the crypto industry.
“We’re seeing a lot of good engagement on Capitol Hill. This administration has been very collaborative.”
She praised the creation of the SEC Crypto Task Force, which admitted top digital asset projects including Chainlink Labs to help establish frameworks for compliant asset tokenization.
“It’s definitely a different world from where it was before,” she said of the increasingly crypto-friendly environment in the U.S.
Ultimately, she believes collaboration between regulators and crypto industry pioneers is key to positioning the U.S. at the forefront of digital assets.
“Working with Congress as a partner rather than trying to avoid the policymaking, the lobbying – that’s critical to getting things right policy wise. I definitely see the crypto industry starting to look more like some of the traditional trades in their ability to lobby and make sure their voices are heard, so they can influence policy in a way that’s best for the industry.”
Watch Jill Malandrino’s full interview with Summer Mersinger.