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.
Patrick Witt is Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, where he’s leading efforts to develop and coordinate national policy on digital asset innovation and regulation. He sat down with Malandrino to discuss the top objectives in U.S. digital asset legislation.
Witt’s number one priority is getting the much-awaited crypto market structure bill across the finish line.
“I’m pretty much camping out on Capitol Hill these days, talking with different senators on the Senate Banking and Senate Agriculture committees,” he told Malandrino.
“I’m very encouraged by the progress, especially over the past few weeks, from folks on both sides of the aisle.”
Witt also serves as Acting Director of the Office of Strategic Capital within the Department of Defense (DoD), where he directs $200 billion of investment into the U.S. military’s defense industrial base. He believes this role gives him a unique perspective on digital assets as they intersect with other facets of national security such as AI, nuclear, and biotech innovation.
“They all go together and they all have one unifying theme, which is that America wants to be the hub for this innovation,” he said. “We want to win the future.”
This requires government collaboration with technical experts in the private sector.
“Government can’t do it alone. You really have to rely on those folks in industry, who are good faith actors, to come in and give you an objective view about the issues that they’re facing from a regulatory standpoint and how to craft solutions.”
Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov is among the crypto industry leaders providing technical insight to help shape key legislation. Last month, he met with Senate Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill to clarify issues related to the market structure bill.
“We’re always trying to strike that balance between the appropriate level of regulation to allow an industry to flourish and have that certainty, but also not overly burdensome to where we’re holding back American innovation,” Witt explained.
He said America’s future depends on its ability to not only adopt but pioneer the next generation of finance onchain.
“We are the envy of the world in terms of our capital markets. We want to maintain that status going into the future under this new financial system that we are building.”
Watch Jill Malandrino’s full interview with Patrick Witt.