As readers of this newsletter may know, Congress has spent the last few months debating market structure legislation, but crypto policy discussions encompass many more issues than this: taxes, decentralized financial regulation, midterm elections, states and much more. CoinDesk’s Consensus Miami conference next month will examine each of these questions in depth.
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This newsletter has highlighted in the past how important policy changes around digital assets have become. Last year, US President Donald Trump signed the first major crypto-specific piece of legislation. Regulators have completely changed their approach to enforcement measures. Congress has spent the last few months debating not the broad strokes of what a market structure bill might look like or whether we will even have a bill, but the finer details of issues such as the treatment of stablecoin yield.
In other words: Crypto succeeded.
That was true last year, to be honest. The crypto industry, fresh off its 2024 election victories, took a victory lap as Bitcoin the price soared to more than $120,000 and legislation seemed imminent. Things have gotten a bit worse this year; Cryptocurrency prices have largely stagnated amid broader economic tensions and time is running out for Congress to pass market structure legislation in its current form. It’s not all bad news: regulators have started proposing rules for stablecoins based on last year’s GENIUS Act, lawmakers are seriously considering reforming U.S. crypto tax policy, and it really seems like this industry has cemented itself to the point that it can’t be dismissed.
So what’s next? The industry is still seeking tax reform, with a de minimis exemption for crypto transactions, hoping the Market Structure Bill becomes law without excessively burdening the industry and – of course – waiting for November, when the United States chooses the next Congress.
We’ll resume these discussions next month at Consensus Miami, our annual party bringing together just about everyone.
You’ll hear from leading lawmakers like Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Ashley Moody, regulators like CFTC Chairman Mike Selig and White House point man on crypto Patrick Witt, as well as members of Congress throughout the three-day conference. Congressman Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), who recently introduced a new version of the Parity Act to combat crypto taxation, will participate in a discussion on the bill. We will also host a meetup for people interested in discussing the election or just the political landscape in general.
And we’re bringing back the Policy and Regulatory Summit: an entire day and stage dedicated to exploring key policy and regulatory issues in depth.
The policy summit is designed to explore some of the biggest questions facing lawmakers, regulators, compliance officers, and/or builders today, including whether and how decentralized finance can comply with anti-money laundering rules, how to handle taxes in the new 1099-DA era, what the deal is with the Clarity Act, and how states are approaching this sector.
We’ll have a whole series of sessions focused on the 2026 midterm elections, including how the crypto industry is engaging in the elections and what we can expect next year when the new Congress takes over.
Along the way, we’ll hear from people deeply involved in the policymaking process, such as Taylor Lindman, head of the SEC’s crypto task force, Seth Wilks and Raj Mukherjee, former IRS officials, and Lucy Hynes of the National Futures Association, among others.
We’ll close the political summit – and the entire consensus, really – with a debate on one of the most important topics in the country right now: prediction markets. Are they playing fair? Or are predictive markets a new financial instrument? And who should regulate these products?
These questions will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, but we’ll present the arguments to you on May 7. Come see us (discount code in the link) and say hello.
Tuesday
- 2:00 p.m. UTC (10:00 a.m. ET) The Senate Banking Committee will hold the nomination hearing for Kevin Warsh, Donald Trump’s pick to head the Federal Reserve.
If you have any ideas or questions about what I should discuss next week or any other comments you’d like to share, feel free to email me at nik@PK Press Club.com or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.
You can also join the group chat on Telegram.
See you next week!
