Crypto In America

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How Ripple's SEC Fight Changed U.S. Crypto Regulation Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

Ripple spent years fighting the SEC over how U.S. securities laws should apply to crypto. Now, Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty says the regulatory environment is finally moving toward the clearer rules the industry has been seeking.

Alderoty joins Crypto in America at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, speaking both as Ripple's Chief Legal Officer and President of the National Cryptocurrency Association, to discuss Ripple's legal battle with the SEC, the agency's evolving approach to digital assets, and what clearer regulation could mean for the next phase of crypto adoption in the United States.

The conversation explores the SEC's shift away from regulation by enforcement, XRP's regulatory status, the debate over “sufficient decentralization,” why blockchain transactions can give law enforcement advantages over cash, the outlook for the Clarity Act, crypto education and adoption, and why traditional financial institutions may ultimately embrace blockchain for efficiency, customer experience, and profit.

Timestamps
00:00 Stuart Alderoty Joins Crypto in America

00:31 The National Cryptocurrency Association

02:37 67 Million Americans Own Crypto

05:55 Why Education Is Crypto’s Biggest Barrier

09:25 Bringing Crypto Education to Washington

11:33 What Crypto in America Means to Stuart Alderoty

14:03 How Alderoty Joined Ripple

16:52 What Crypto Taught a Traditional Finance Lawyer

19:50 Crypto, Cash and Illicit Finance

23:02 Why Compliance Matters for Crypto’s Future

24:45 Bitcoin Was Meant to Be “Human Friendly”

26:47 How Ripple Fought SEC Regulation by Enforcement

28:28 Why Ripple Decided to Fight the SEC

30:44 Ripple’s XRP Ruling and the New SEC

32:35 How Ripple Helped Shape Today’s Crypto Rules

34:56 Is “Sufficient Decentralization” Dead?

37:28 What the SEC’s New Crypto Framework Could Unlock

38:00 Should the SEC and CFTC Move Ahead of Congress?

38:30 What the Clarity Act Means for Ripple

38:34 Why Wall Street Is Leaning Into Crypto

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Please note that this podcast is for informational purposes only and any views shared by anyone on the show are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this episode.

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LIVE | The Clarity Act Failed. Now It’s the Regulators’ Turn Sep 21, 2026

Show notes

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and Crypto Task Force Chief Counsel Taylor Lindman join us to discuss the SEC’s innovation exemption for tokenized stocks, the implications for DeFi and self-custody, and preparations for 24-hour trading.

Former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry breaks down what went wrong with Clarity, whether negotiations can restart, and the risks of building crypto policy without legislation.

The American Bankers Association’s Brooke Ybarra discusses stablecoin rewards, banks’ concerns about deposit flight, and whether the banking industry’s push for restrictions backfired.

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Why Washington Still Can't Give Crypto Regulatory Certainty Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

Anthony Scaramucci says the U.S. crypto industry has made progress, but he isn't convinced Washington will deliver the regulatory certainty the market is waiting for.

The SkyBridge founder joins Crypto in America at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium to discuss the Clarity Act, why he believes political incentives could complicate its path through Congress, and what could happen if U.S. crypto policy continues to rely on agency rulemaking instead of legislation.

The conversation explores the Trump administration's approach to crypto regulation, the durability of SEC and CFTC rules, institutional adoption, why a failure to pass the Clarity Act could have very different implications for Bitcoin and altcoins, how stablecoins could strengthen the U.S. dollar, crypto donor fatigue in Washington, and Scaramucci's outlook for the crypto market over the next six months.

Timestamps

00:00 Anthony Scaramucci Returns to Crypto in America

00:38 Is Crypto Still Early?

01:38 Paul Atkins’ Approach to Crypto Regulation

03:14 Will the Clarity Act Vote Actually Happen?

03:36 Why Scaramucci Is 50/50 on the Clarity Act

06:52 Can Crypto Democratize Finance?

09:47 Scaramucci Grades Trump’s Crypto Agenda

11:17 Why the Clarity Act Could Fail

12:30 The Politics Behind Trump’s Crypto Interests

15:56 Has Trump Made Crypto Legislation Harder?

18:03 Why Agency Rules Can Be Reversed

20:32 What the Clarity Act Means for SkyBridge and Bitcoin

22:35 Could Clarity Act Failure Actually Help Bitcoin?

23:25 Why Altcoins Have More to Lose

25:11 How the Clarity Act Could Strengthen the U.S. Dollar

27:10 Is Crypto Losing Political Influence?

30:39 Is Washington Exposing Crony Capitalism?

33:36 Scaramucci’s Six-Month Crypto Outlook

35:09 Institutional Demand and Bitcoin’s Next Cycle

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Will the Clarity Act Pass? White House Crypto Adviser Weighs In | Patrick Witt Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets and a key White House negotiator on the Clarity Act, joins Crypto in America as the Senate prepares for a critical vote on U.S. crypto market structure legislation.

Speaking live from the Solana Policy Institute’s Washington and Wall Street Summit, Patrick Witt breaks down the final negotiations behind the bill, why he feels “very good” about reaching the 60 votes needed to move forward, and why the outcome may ultimately come down to politics rather than policy.

The conversation covers President Trump’s agreement to stronger crypto ethics provisions, the White House’s clash with the banking industry over stablecoin rewards and deposit flight concerns, the compromises made to secure bipartisan support, how much room remains to change the bill, and what the SEC and CFTC could do if the Clarity Act fails to advance.

Timestamps

00:10 Patrick Witt on the Clarity Act

01:13 Trump Agrees to Stronger Crypto Ethics Rules

03:02 What Changed in the Ethics Compromise?

05:24 Can the Ethics Deal Win More Democratic Votes?

06:32 Why the White House Compromised on the BRCA

08:02 White House Responds to Ethics Criticism

09:30 Banks Push Back on Stablecoin Rewards

13:41 Patrick Witt Challenges the Banking Lobby

16:00 Could Republican Holdouts Block the Bill?

18:36 Does the Clarity Act Have 60 Votes?

19:24 Is the Final Clarity Act Deal Done?

20:31 Which Senators Could Decide the Vote?

21:06 What Happens If the Senate Gets 60 Votes?

23:09 Can the Clarity Act Reach Trump’s Desk This Year?

23:53 What Happens If the Clarity Act Fails?

25:00 SEC and CFTC’s Crypto Plan B

26:07 Inside the Clarity Act Negotiations

28:00 What to Watch Before the Senate Vote28:20 How the White House Views the Final Deal28:30 What Witt Would Have Done Differently

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The Crypto Regulation Trap | Why Certainty Is Still Missing with Miles Jennings Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

The regulatory environment for crypto in the U.S. has changed dramatically, but founders and investors still face a bigger question: can today's progress provide the long-term certainty needed to build and invest for the next decade?

Miles Jennings, Head of Policy and General Counsel at a16z crypto, joins Crypto in America to discuss the Clarity Act, the limits of agency rulemaking, and why entrepreneurs still need clearer rules for building in the United States.

The conversation explores the latest Clarity Act negotiations, decentralization and control, stablecoin yield and opposition from parts of the banking industry, traditional finance moving onchain, how regulatory changes are affecting crypto investment, the competition for entrepreneurs between AI and crypto, and the legal questions emerging as AI agents begin interacting with money.

Timestamps

00:10 Miles Jennings Returns to Crypto in America

00:29 What Crypto in America Means Today

01:18 Where the Clarity Act Stands

02:15 Will the September Vote Actually Happen?

02:54 Why Founders Still Need Regulatory Certainty

04:35 Can SEC Rules Give Founders Enough Clarity?

05:55 Is the Clarity Act a Good Compromise?

07:10 How the Clarity Act Defines Control

09:13 Rethinking “Sufficient Decentralization”

11:41 The Risk of a Regulatory Race to the Bottom

13:24 Why Traditional Finance Is Rethinking DeFi

15:17 Wall Street Is Moving Onchain

16:42 Why Banks Keep Fighting Stablecoin Yield

18:50 The Political Fight Over the Clarity Act

20:45 Is the Clarity Act Debate Still About Policy?

22:37 The 60-Vote Challenge

23:27 Fairshake and Crypto’s Political Influence

25:21 How a16z Advises Crypto Founders

27:23 How Founders Are Preparing for Clarity

27:55 AI vs. Crypto for Venture Capital

29:01 Why AI Is Attracting More Entrepreneurs

30:24 Where Crypto Investors See Opportunity

32:06 How Clarity Could Make the Market “Safe Again”

33:18 Could Crypto Debanking Return?

34:23 The Next Legal Battleground: AI Agents and Money

36:02 Who Is Responsible When an AI Agent Controls Money?

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What Happens If the Clarity Act Fails? Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

The Clarity Act remains one of the crypto industry's biggest policy priorities in Washington, but what happens if Congress can't get market structure legislation across the finish line?

Kristin Smith, President of the Solana Policy Institute, joins Crypto in America at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium to discuss why passing major crypto legislation has proven more difficult than anticipated, why the SEC and CFTC may need to pursue what she calls “Operation Plan B,” and what greater regulatory certainty could mean for Solana and institutional adoption.

The conversation explores the political hurdles still facing crypto market structure legislation, the role of SEC and CFTC rulemaking, Solana's opportunity in tokenized securities, institutional capital sitting on the sidelines, Fairshake's impact on Washington, and why tax policy could become one of crypto's next major policy fights.

Timestamps

00:10 Kristin Smith on the Future of U.S. Crypto Policy

00:34 Why U.S. Crypto Policy Matters Globally

01:30 How the Clarity Act Has Evolved

03:22 Why Congress Is Running Out of Time

05:42 How Likely Is the Clarity Act to Pass?

07:55 The 60-Vote Challenge

08:23 Banks, Yield and the Final Negotiations

10:27 Can SEC Rulemaking Move Ahead of Congress?

11:17 Why Crypto Needs “Operation Plan B”

12:52 What the Clarity Act Means for Solana

14:56 Tokenized Securities and Institutional Adoption

15:23 Why Wall Street Money Is Sitting on the Sidelines

16:18 DeFi and Regulated Markets on Solana

17:11 Public Blockchains as Financial Infrastructure

18:48 Fairshake’s Influence in Washington

19:21 How Crypto Should Approach the Midterms

21:15 How Fairshake Changed Crypto’s Political Power

21:46 Crypto’s Next Major Policy Fight: Taxes

23:40 Why Washington Has a Crypto Tax Education Gap

24:39 What to Watch From the SEC and CFTC

25:41 Wall Street’s Next Wave of Crypto Adoption

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What Happens to Crypto If the Clarity Act Doesn’t Pass? Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

Jonathan Jachym, Global Head of Policy and Market Structure at Kraken, joins Crypto in America at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium to break down what’s at stake as Congress weighs the Clarity Act and why legislation could provide something agency rulemaking alone cannot: long-term regulatory certainty for the U.S. crypto industry.

Jachym discusses the ongoing Clarity Act negotiations, what the SEC and CFTC could do if Congress fails to act, and the risks of relying on rules that a future administration could potentially unwind. The conversation also explores federal customer protections, Kraken’s evolving access to the U.S. payment system, tokenized equities and real-world assets, and why the lines between crypto-native companies and traditional financial institutions are becoming increasingly blurred.

Timestamps:

00:44 What Crypto in America Means to Kraken

02:17 Can the Clarity Act Still Pass?

03:18 Banks, Stablecoins and Remaining Negotiations

05:34 The Biggest Disagreements Around Clarity

08:12 How Crypto Exchanges Are Working Together

09:02 Kraken's Access to the U.S. Payment System

10:47 Is Direct Fed Access Enough?

12:41 SEC and CFTC Crypto Rulemaking

15:14 Tokenized Equities and Traditional Finance

17:16 What If the Clarity Act Doesn't Pass?

20:02 Can Future Administrations Reverse the Rules?

22:42 Why the U.S. Is Falling Behind

25:41 What Failure Could Mean for DeFi and Developers

27:32 Jonathan's Outlook for the Clarity Act

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Former NY Governor Cuomo | Tokenization Is Already Here, But Is America Falling Behind? Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says tokenization has already passed the inflection point and that the question facing the U.S. is no longer whether financial assets move onchain, but how quickly and under what rules.

Cuomo joins Crypto in America from the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium to discuss tokenized securities, the future of Wall Street, the clarity Act, crypto regulation and his work with OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

The conversation explores why Cuomo believes onchain finance can make markets faster, cheaper and more transparent, why regulatory clarity remains critical for U.S. competitiveness, what went wrong with New York's early crypto licensing regime, and why rebuilding public trust in digital assets will require clear rules that are enforced consistently.

Timestamps

00:10 Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo joins Crypto in America

02:48 What Crypto in America Means to Cuomo

05:37 How Much of Wall Street Will Move Onchain?

07:08 Tokenization Has Passed the Inflection Point

08:58 Why the clarity Act Matters

11:27 The Political Window for Crypto Legislation

13:35 Why Democrats Have Struggled With Crypto

15:44 How Crypto Can Rebuild Public Trust

16:56 Cuomo on OKX and U.S. Regulation

19:57 Did New York’s BitLicense Go Too Far?

22:09 Can New York Remain the Financial Capital?

25:17 Tokenized Securities and the Future of Banking

26:44 Does Andrew Cuomo Own Crypto?

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Is AI Killing Crypto VC Or Helping It? Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly, joins Crypto In America to break down what it takes to fund the next generation of innovation.

Leaving a $50 billion hedge fund right as the 2022 crypto winter began, Rob shares how Dragonfly maintained its conviction through the bear market to close its fourth fund at $650 million earlier this year.

Rob takes us behind the scenes of Dragonfly's massive bets on teams like Polymarket, explaining how he sees prediction markets gearing up to disrupt institutional hedging. He also dives into the realities of VC returns, why AI is currently sucking the air out of the room, the comeback of US-based founders under new regulatory frameworks, and why perpetual futures (Perps) are the defining financial product of this cycle.

Timestamps

00:10 What does crypto in America mean to you?

01:15 Joining Dragonfly after the FTX collapse

05:12 Current market climate vs. the "crypto winter"

08:15 VC pressure: Capital, talent, and the AI boom

11:02 Crypto-native vs. expansion into AI

13:05 Consolidation in Venture Capital and solo GPs

18:41 Founder trends: Returning to the U.S.

21:05 The status of the Clarity Act

23:34 Expectations for the SEC and CFTC

26:55 Tokens vs. Equity and performance metrics

29:48 Disclosure requirements for tokens

35:25 What Dragonfly looks for in founders: Vibes vs. Data

39:26 Overvalued vs. undervalued sectors

42:42 Deep dive into Polymarket: Why invest?

44:03 Perpetual Futures (Perps): Why they are a key innovation

45:47 The AI debate: Open vs. Closed weights

50:30 Closing

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Please note that this podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views shared by anyone on the show are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in the content mentioned in this episode.

This show is sponsored by Sumsub. Get your copy of its State of the Crypto Industry report: https://sumsub.link/cdt

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From Wall Street to Crypto | Why Agora is Betting on Institutional Compliance Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

Stablecoins are rapidly evolving from a niche crypto trading tool into the ultimate financial upgrade for multinational corporations. Agora wants to be at the forefront of this shift, building the bank-grade infrastructure needed to bring the Fortune 500 onchain without compromising on compliance.

Nick Van Eck, CEO and co-founder of Agora, joins Crypto In America to reveal why the next major wave of digital asset adoption will be driven by enterprise utility, cross-border payments, and regulatory clarity.

Backed by partnerships with traditional financial giants, Van Eck breaks down how the upcoming GENIUS Act implementation will open the floodgates for corporate crypto adoption. He also explains why stablecoins are significantly more valuable outside the US, how they solve real-world treasury challenges, and what a fully tokenized, 24/7 market means for the future of the US dollar.

Timestamp:

00:10 Nick Van Eck, CEO of Agora

00:23 What Does Crypto in America Mean Today?

01:11 From Traditional Finance to Building Agora

02:16 Stablecoin Regulation & the GENIUS Act

05:04 Bringing Stablecoins to U.S. Businesses

06:10 Agora’s OCC Charter & Institutional Strategy

09:45 Building Bank-Grade Stablecoin Infrastructure

11:13 What Makes AUSD Different From Other Stablecoins?

14:06 What the GENIUS Act Could Unlock in 2027

16:52 Which Industries Will Adopt Stablecoins First?

18:19 Is the Market Underestimating the GENIUS Act?

20:11 Why Cross-Border Payments Are the Killer Use Case

23:38 Stablecoins in the U.S. vs. Emerging Markets

25:06 How Banks Are Responding to Stablecoins

27:46 Stablecoins as 24/7 Financial Collateral

28:49 How Crypto Companies Earn Institutional Trust

32:04 What’s Holding Institutions Back From Stablecoins?

36:18 Global Stablecoin Regulation: U.S., Europe & Asia

38:20 What Does the Future of Finance On-Chain Look Like?

40:23 Does Crypto Need the CLARITY Act?

43:04 What Comes After Stablecoin Regulation?

44:44 Stablecoins and the Future of U.S. Dollar Dominance

45:52 Could U.S. Banks Launch Their Own Stablecoin?

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