A second look at crypto prices this morning. As you can see,
Bitcoin, ethereum xrp. All on the rise Bitcoin, 68,000 and
change ethereum. As you can see. 2133, we are watching these
markets, obviously, for several reasons because the Clarity Act
is facing a critical deadline in. The weeks ahead, lawmakers
are racing right now to finalize a deal with key disputes over
stablecoin rewards while Market structure remains unresolved.
Now the outcome could reshape the crypto landscape but
potentially driving more institutional capital in the
Bitcoin and put in the United States closer to a clear
regulatory framework. Now coinbase is signaling momentum
here. Saying that a deal could come together within 48 hours.
There is shares of coinbase in the pre-market up more than two
percent. I want to bring in coinbase Chief legal officer,
Paul graywall, Paul, thank you for being here. Thank you.
You've been spending a lot of time in Washington recently in the last few weeks. How
Close at this point? Do you think we are to reveal? And what
do you think? What are you hearing from these lawmakers and
from the White House in particular as the backdrop, is
the pushback from the big Banks? Well, I think we're very close
to a deal and we're hearing is that in spite of the pushback
that you referenced particularly on the issue of rewards for
holders of stable coins and people who use stable coins to
make payments in their everyday lives. We're seeing a real
recognition that rewards are important but also other key
elements of the bill are critically important to make
sure that President Trump's vision of the United States as
the crypto world is it fulfilled. But when you get the
push back for the banks, you can understand that because of the
capital requirements that are on the banks they're positioning is
if you let the crypto companies in particular with the reward
issue of the rewards that their and Essence not playing by the
same rules as the banks would have to play. And that there you have an unfair advantage
So that these companies should be underneath the purview of the
CFC, the SEC Etc. What I think it's important to understand
that the rules may be different because the game is very
different with traditional banking you have fractional,
lending people taking into posits at a certain amount and
then lending out much more value than that out into the
community. I can understand the theoretical argument that
somehow stable coins pose a risk to deposit flight from Banks,
especially Community Banks. But if that were in fact, the
reality Cheryl we'd see evidence of that. In fact there has been
no evidence of deposit flight whatsoever and it's critically
important that this issue not be conflated with other challenges
that Banks may be facing. That explain why we are not seeing
the community lending that we need in this country in order
for robust economy, continue to grow, certainly certainly. And
you do want to see that the Administration has been making
other moves to make sure that Community Banks are strengthened
over on the mortgage side. I'll get to crypto in the mortgage
Market in just a minute. But, you know, I was like, looking at a note from a, from a
Clear Street. And they say that Clarity The Clarity Act is a
refinement, but this is not a regime change because you had
genius. Now you've got Clarity these two pieces work together
but that it was really genius that laid out the true. I guess
platform that the true messaging if you will for how this is all
going to move forward. You know, Senator, Tim Scott who, of
course, introduced The Clarity Act. I think believed in many
did that we were going to have a resolution of this and the fall
of 2025. It is gone on much longer this argument than many
believed, but talk about that 48 hour time frame. Do you really
believe that we're going to have resolution in 48 hours? After
all of this? I'm very confident, we're going to see progress. And
the reason for that, is we need to finish the job. It's true.
The genius Act passed last year, was a watershed moment for
crypto and for the crypto economy. For the first time, we
had sensible rules in, place the government, this important part of crypto. However,
It's important that we provide a full Market structure into which
the crypto legislation from last year can fit and that's what
Clarity fundamentally provides. I do think that it's important
that we finish the job in particular on deciding which
tokens which crypto projects really should fall to the
jurisdiction of the SEC on the one hand, and which really are
better served by oversight over at the cftc. I think chairman
Scott deserves a lot of credit. He has certainly been persistent
even patient as we've worked through a lot of these issues. I
think that with all the products that we made over the last
several months, it's exciting to see that we're moving towards a
markup Hearing in the Senate Banking Committee. Hopefully as
soon as in the next few weeks and ultimately a floor vote and
passage of the bill with the season trip by the present
follow. Okay. With the recess right now the same time though
you know coinbase as the trading platform for crypto. I say the
trading platform because in a sense it is and this gives the
average investor a way to access the crypto Market without
actually buying coins which I think is
Really crucial for someone that doesn't quite have the true
understanding of what you know, cryptocurrency is at the same
time, you know, the street has been rather punitive to you. If
we look at a six-month chart of coinbase, unfortunately, you
have had quite the fall with the stock. So you talked about that
about the structure of your company and how you kind of
combat, what your hand, what you're dealing with which is
Washington right now, well, our founder and CEO. Brian Armstrong
has built coinbase for the Long Haul and I think company is a
whole is very much focused on the not, just the next quarter
or the next year, but the next 10 years. And then the next 25
or even 50 years in crypto, in order for us to realize, a full
vision for crypto one where this is much more than just about
buying and selling tokens but actually, Building Technology
infrastructure that will fundamentally change how our
financial system works with an eye towards making the financial
system better for regular Americans, we need to continue
making Investments. We need to continue to build and grow
products. And that work has continued unabated regardless of
quarter to quarter or even day-to-day.
A week-to-week market, gyrations. Hence, the the role
of coinbase global. And what we're seeing happening with
these negotiations, let's talk about kind of the mortgage
Market, the housing market because this is interesting. So
Fannie Mae is moving to accept crypto back mortgages for the
first time. And this would give home buyers, you know, the
ability to use to Jill assets instead of cash for a down
payment, the new product and partnership with coinbase and
Better Home. And finance is designed to open the housing
market. Certainly to crypto holders without forcing to sell
out, right? Because what we had seen really even going back, you
know, five years, six years was that these large scale
investors, would have to completely sell out of the
crypto dump. It all, use the cash, then buy property, which
many did this is a new way to structure this. What do you make
of it? It's a new way and I think it's a better way to do
this and the reason we're excited about this particular
product, is that it will allow people for the first time to
pledge their digital assets. Their cryptocurrencies, much in the same way,
As they can other assets that are often taking into
consideration, when reviewing home loan applications, you
know, Cheryl at a time when we're so focused on housing
affordability and accessibility to home ownership. I think it's
an important and impressive step that Fannie Mae has taken. That
we allow people to use the digital property, just like
these other property in order to achieve the dream of homeowners.
There's also a proposal for the labor department to open up 401K plans to crypto.
Yes. And we think what labor has recognized again is that
increasingly we're seeing crypto being treated no better, no
worse than any other form of asset in our financial system
and just just like any other Financial opportunity. It's
important that Americans have the choice to invest in these
particular products and services. Before you go, I got
asked you about another big headlines, and this is making
news this morning, lawmakers are moving to crack down on
prediction markets. We, they talked about another going after
it. This is a new legislation piece of legislation, that would
ban bets on elections war and government actions. And then
coinbase is also expanding the prediction Market, space
exponentially, but you're facing greater regulatory scrutiny over
this. The prediction markets have really become front and
center. No question about it. The fact of the matter is that
Americans have voted with their wallets and shown tremendous
interest in adopting and using prediction markets in ways that
were unimaginable. Even a short time ago, we saw that most recently with the final
4 and March Madness and all that Super Bowl before that, but
critically and all sorts of other prediction markets have
nothing to do with sports politics. Whether other
Financial opportunities, the law has, I think recognized well
that it is the federal government. The cftc in
particular that has exclusive jurisdiction over the authority.
Over this Congress, ultimately has the final say, but it's
curious to me that Congress would feel the need to propose
new legislation in this area when those who are opposed to
prediction markets, have criticized him who suggested
that that Authority has existed all along. I think that tells
you what the state of law is today. I think that, well, as
particular, when you see bets made in particular, as the start
of the war in Iran is a perfect recent example that it has
gotten a lot of attention. No question about it. And that's
why I think the cftc needs to continue to focus on the support
issue. Paul Gray Wall. Thank you so much for being here. Thank
you, sir. All right. A lot going on. Keep us posted. We're going
to take a quick break, everybody. We'll be right back.
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