THE GARY GENSLER TRAP! All of crypto is waiting, hoping, praying for CLARITY to advance this week — but can we just quickly consider the path if that doesn't happen? 1) The SEC likely deploys their Project Crypto stop-gap band-aid 2) Then there's a 80/20 shot Dems undo it all in the next admin Nobody really believes anything meaningful is coming onchain if builders need to worry about a Gary Gensler 2.0 (this, of course, is the whole reason the crypto industry is pushing for the rules proposed in CLARITY.) But I think there is a silver lining worth exploring here — and maybe it's what Gensler feared all along. (For anyone who was in crypto before the great purge of 2022, this should be fairly obvious.) Back then, the Gensler playbook was pretty clear: Go after anyone offering anything of value in crypto for unregistered security offerings. NFTs? Securities. ETH? Potentially a security. Memecoins? Basically the only thing that was allowed. lol Considering that, it's a pretty obvious reaction to see the crypto industry giants (like Coinbase, etc.) pursue a bill that will codify how this process can legally work, and finally lay out rules for when *exactly* an asset becomes a security vs. a commodity. But is that the best outcome for everything in crypto? Particularly for an industry that once prided itself on decentralization, dis-intermediation, and root ownership, it is OK to say no! After all, it was Bitcoin's original model that pioneered value accrual to a community that used a network. This value did not accrue to a VC. This value did not accrue to insiders. But to anyone who cared enough to be early and participate permissionlessly. It's been 2 years since the industry had Gensler hanging over it. In those two years, the major industry players have seemingly bent the knee to the same thinking — that anything of value in crypto must follow the security framework onchain. Does that give you something closer to the old system Bitcoin sought to destroy? Or something closer to Bitcoin? Whether CLARITY passes or not, the industry still needs to reckon with that question.

@AndrewCapasso_ With all due respect to those working on tokenized securities - I do not think these are native to crypto There is nothing native about re-introducing intermediaries You can have ownership (and dividends) without that:

Four years in, I think I can say that building a startup is not as fun as it looks But somewhere in-between sleeping on the floor and the pain, there are moments where you can't help but reflect on doing it @coinage_media is the first community-owned media outlet built onchain

Full vote on the CLARITY ACT advancing in the Senate Banking Committee by 15-9 margin: Tim Scott (R) - Y Mike Crapo (R) - Y Mike Rounds (R) - Y Thom Tillis (R) - Y John Kennedy (R) - Y Bill Hagerty (R) - Y Cynthia Lummis (R) - Y Katie Britt (R) - Y Pete Ricketts (R) - Y Jim Banks (R) - Y Kevin Cramer (R) - Y Bernie Moreno (R) - Y Dave McCormick (R) - Y Ruben Gallego (D) - Y Angela Alsobrooks (D) - Y Elizabeth Warren (D) - N Jack Reed (D) - N Mark Warner (D) - N Chris Van Hollen (D) - N Catherine Cortez Masto (D) - N Tina Smith (D) - N Raphael Warnock (D) - N Andy Kim (D) - N Lisa Blunt Rochester (D) - N Final vote: 15-9

.@SenatorWarnock calls out President Trump’s personal crypto dealings and World Liberty Financial as a major blocking point for the CLARITY Act: “The President’s self-dealing with digital assets is pure corruption.”

Best part of my job is getting to chat with smart people about frontier tech in beautiful places 🛥️ Awesome to be with @MikeBucella @S_A_Mackintosh @marcpbernegger at @SALTConference @DigitalFinForum

.@Strategy just saw $STRC notch its highest volume T-4 trading day heading into an ex-dividend date in history (h/t @fundstrat @SeanMFarrell ) Historically, these next three days into the ex-dividend date mean large $BTC accumulations to come for @saylor Buckle up 💺