Regulation
Crypto Roundtable With Biden Adviser Leaves Industry Insiders ‘Optimistic’
A cryptocurrency industry roundtable held in Washington on Wednesday garnered mixed results from attendees, though at least one industry representative said Decipher the group was largely more “optimistic” after the discussion.
However, those who believed that the purpose of the cryptocurrency roundtable, hosted by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), was to signal that the Biden administration is not an enemy of cryptocurrencies, do not appear to have been allayed by those fears.
Other attendees, who saw the meeting more as a listening session for Democratic Party elites, felt it was a genuine and potentially encouraging gesture by the White House in an effort to better understand the industry’s myriad frustrations.
“I’ve had a lot of people tell me they left the room feeling more optimistic than when they entered,” said one cryptocurrency industry panelist who asked not to be named. Decipher.
“I would call it a successful meeting,” they continued. “People were honest. No one on the industry side held back.”
Before the meeting took place Wednesday morning, there was some doubt that the White House would send a representative to attend. Some invited members of the cryptocurrency industry decided to leave the roundtable altogether after hearing that senior Biden officials would not be there.
One of these guests told Decipher were informed that several senior White House staffers, including Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, who had been listed as possible attendees, would not be appearing due to scheduling conflicts.
But one of the Bidens closest advisorsAnita Dunn, ultimately, did appear at the roundtable. While Dunn appeared in her personal capacity, not intending to represent the president’s administration, another source familiar with the matter said DecipherSome attendees felt Dunn’s presence had an impact, given his reputation as one of the few prized members of Biden’s inner circle who consistently he has his ear.
“You could have had 15 people younger than Anita there, but it wouldn’t have been as powerful as having Anita there,” the cryptocurrency industry participant added.
No other White House officials attended the roundtable. Of the 27 attendees at the meeting, the vast majority were cryptocurrency industry executives and lobbyists. The only political attendees besides Khanna and Dunn were Senator Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY), already known as one of the most prominent cryptocurrency supporterand Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO).
Industry attendees included Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Galaxy CEO Mike Novogratz, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, and Mike Brock, a top cryptocurrency executive at Block, among others. Mark Cuban and Anthony Scaramucci were also in attendance.
While today’s meeting offered some glimmers of hope that the Biden administration might be interested in a more fluid dialogue with cryptocurrency industry leaders, it by no means demonstrated that the White House is friendly to the industry.
Over the past two months, Biden has I placed the veto A widely popular bipartisan effort to allow U.S. banks to hold cryptocurrencies, is pitted against another bipartisan effort cryptocurrency regulatory frameworkand continued to support the aggressively anti-cryptocurrency stance of its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In stark contrast, Republicans have recently embraced cryptocurrencies wholeheartedly. On Monday, they approved a draft party platform that explicitly mentioned cryptoa first for a major American political party.
A few hours after Khanna’s roundtable on cryptocurrencies concluded on Wednesday, the House is ready to vote on overriding President Biden’s veto of a bipartisan repeal of SAB 121. The override, which would require a two-thirds supermajority in first the House, then the Senate, would allow traditional U.S. banks to hold cryptocurrencies, something the SEC has prohibited.