the big news in the crypto market this week has been President Joe
biden's executive order asking lawmakers and
agencies to study the risks and benefits
of digital assets. He basically asked for a book report
while we've seen plenty of movement from the crypto market
in the immediate aftermath on Wednesday as well as yesterday,
what role will regulation play in the long term landscape of the Cryptocurrency
ecosystem
Jared load holt joins the show now, Jared is partner at Ice Miller,
a law firm that says it's dedicated to helping its clients stay ahead
of a changing world. Nice to have you here on the show. Happy friday.
So, I know you wanna talk about the President's executive order of course,
what is most important here as it pertains to
what the president is, it was trying to do here?
No, I think what's most important is kind of the broad takeaway,
which is the federal government is taking a thoughtful,
comprehensive approach to whatever its next steps will be right.
I think there were some concerns in the market
that the administration's approach would be ham fisted.
Always thought that those were overplayed.
But I think what we've seen from this administration is the kind of thoughtfulness.
But I think industry players wanted to see
From the administration and time right?
They're gonna be 346, 12,
18 month different reports that staggered
throughout the executive order that will allow
us to consider the various touchpoints with
digital assets in the federal government.
So I think it was thoughtful. It was thoughtful. It was well done.
It was comprehensive and I think it was a home run,
both for the administration and for industry
Jared what's your sense as to why joe biden is doing this now? I mean, I I used to
asked trump administration officials 34 years ago about Cryptocurrency.
This was not a priority for Congress.
Even just a few years ago, it's not really a priority for the last president.
And Joe biden has been president now for over a year. Why now? What's your sense?
Well, I mean, I think in the market, right,
the markets have exploded in the last year.
And I think the market values over $3 trillion.
I mean, this is a massive, massive,
I think investment in class that is growing literally
by the minute in this country and globally.
And so I think what this administration and I
think we're Washington policy makers are starting to,
and state policymakers,
I don't want to leave them out because I
think they're really important in the ecosystem as well.
Is there figuring out how do they strike the right balance between innovation
and consumer investment protection and regulation, Right.
And I think this executive order is designed, I think to start to ask, well,
what should we know and think and
understand first before we regulate and legislate.
So, I mean, I think it's just
it's just digital assets, it's their time, right?
It's just an industry that's grown pretty dramatically.
And I think policymakers have acknowledged, we don't know it all right.
We're still figuring it out.
And I think ultimately that's the key takeaway from
this executive order is we're still figuring it out.
And but we're gonna do it. We're gonna do in a thoughtful and comprehensive way.
And hopefully these various interagency groups that are doing these different
reports and readouts are going to engage industry throughout the process.
So if I'm not mistaken, we're talking about a window of 180 days or so for these,
I call them a book report, but that's, you know,
essentially make your report and bring it back to us.
We'll we'll build an actionable game plan. That's kind of how I see this.
So, if we had a little bit of a reaction here. Yeah, exactly.
So we had a little bit of a reaction here
in the last 72 hours because of the announcement.
Fine.
What's your expectation for what happens as we get closer to that 180 day window?
Because now I feel like Jared at that point there,
The federal government will have something of substance
to much more sink its teeth into.
Is that your expectation as well as we get closer to the submission. Okay. Yeah.
Yes or no. Talk to me. Yes, and no. Right.
I think what you'll see in the next and, and again, some parts of the report,
we'll start to see in the next 90 days.
Some things we're gonna see in the next 100, you know, 12,180 and so forth.
So the executive order has various reports
that staggered timing throughout the executive order.
So we're gonna start to see things, I'd say late summer, early fall,
you're gonna start to see the first kind of round of conversations start to emerge.
I think at that time then what they're gonna do is make recommendations.
So I actually don't think you're gonna see
a significant,
you may see a jump that day because the reports won't be as
bad as people think they're going to be right or they're gonna be,
you know, certain things that I think they want Congress to do.
So, I mean,
this is just the beginning of a very long conversation between industry and
policymakers and investors and folks who use end users of digital assets.
So I don't think that in it,
in six months we'll have a definitive this is
the absolute thing that we're gonna do right.
Like I think like any other policy
area is iterative as markets circumstances changed
and as user preferences and different marketplace actors, change laws evolved.
But I think in six months you'll see this
is how the executive branch thinks things should go,
which at that point it will be on Congress and regulators to execute implement.
And that could take a matter of years. But what we
got
to this point of this timeline, I gotta pop into some run out of time.
But I do want to play this out and get your reaction to,
and I think it goes to what you were just talking about.
We spoke with dan Gallagher,
he's the chief legal and corporate affairs officer at Robin Hood,
he's a former sec official.
He gave us his thoughts on increased oversight.
I'm gonna play that for you and get your reaction on the other side Jared.
Let's take a listen.
I do worry that overregulation has the potential to, uh, you know, to,
to quash innovation.
And I think crypto is all about innovation.
It is driving tremendous change in our financial infrastructure.
It's critically important that we not quash that.
And so regulators need to take their old authorities and apply
them to a new space unless there's legislation coming anytime soon.
And if they do that, they should do so very carefully and selectively
Jared. What challenges will regulators like the sec face?
Well, one I think, you know, at the end of the day,
that's kind of where the Robin Hoods and industry have to engage with government
and with the interagency groups that are doing these reports in these studies,
so that the steps that they take don't quash
innovation. And I think ultimately, that's always a concern.
But again,
what I saw from what I read that executive order was
what we hope will be a fair and balanced approach.
And I think ultimately,
what the sec s in the world hopefully are gonna do is we're gonna work with industry,
as well as advocates who are more concerned about innovation protection,
investor protection and consumer protection,
and we'll strike that right balance because ultimately,
what I think government seeks to do is strike that balance.
So I think this is an invitation to engage
all right, Jared load holt,
happy friday to you. Thanks a lot for taking the time. So awesome conversation
partner at Ice Miller there in Atlanta, of course, great to have you.