Today in Washington, D.C. at the DC Blockchain Summit, Chainlink’s Head of Public Policy, Adam Minehardt, joined hosts Andy and Robbie live on The Rollup to discuss the future of U.S. crypto legislation and tokenized real-world assets.
Minehardt described the atmosphere at this year’s event as a “clash of philosophies” on a course toward convergence.
“In crypto, we break the rules and in government, they make the rules,” he said.
“You’re seeing TradFi do crypto things and you’re seeing crypto do TradFi things and you see that with the policies that are being pursued.”
The question for regulators now is “How can we allow TradFi rails to operate and facilitate crypto transactions?”
“You’re really seeing a broadening of the word crypto to include Wall Street now,” Minehardt said. “The playing field has gotten a lot bigger.”
With a long-awaited crypto market structure bill on the horizon, he anticipates clarity around the ability for exchanges to pay yield on static stablecoins “within the next week or two.”
He considers a developing SEC proposal to allow public companies to report earnings semi-annually instead of quarterly as one of the many green lights regulators are sending TradFi about crypto.
“The SEC and the CFTC are doing the hard work, making changes to the plumbing so that TradFi can really enter the digital assets world in a big way.”
Minehardt believes the new SEC and CFTC Memorandum of Understanding to reduce legislative overlap and establish a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for crypto assets will have much broader benefits.
“I think this could be one of the most important things that comes out of this period for all of us – not just crypto, but for all of financial services to have stronger working relationships between those two agencies. The amount of time and money wasted by companies going back and forth to two regulatory entities that are on different pages is mind numbing – it’s a waste of their time, it’s a waste of the industry’s time, and it doesn’t protect investors well.”
Last year, Minehardt represented Chainlink at the White House for its contributions to a Digital Asset Report featuring oracles as essential technology for the onchain economy. As the industry-leading oracle platform connecting governments and institutions to onchain finance, Chainlink is well positioned for the future.
“It’s a great perch to be in, where we can see all of this evolve without being overly parochial on one particular niche area,” he explained.
“We are trying to engage thoughtfully and move market structure forward. That’s our goal: we want to see this get across the finish line. Clarity is necessary on a lot of fronts, but foremost to protect investors. Protecting investors is bullish for the industry.”
Watch the full interview.