As readers of this newsletter will know, Congress has spent the last few months debating market structure legislation, but crypto policy discussions cover many more topics than just one: taxes, decentralized financial regulations, 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 noted in the past how important policy changes around digital assets have become. Last year, US President Donald Trump signed the first major cryptocurrency-specific legislation. Regulators have completely changed their approach to enforcement measures. Congress has spent the last few months debating not the broad contours of what a market structure bill might look like or whether we’ll even have a bill, but the finer details of issues like the treatment of stablecoin performance.
In other words: Crypto did it.
To be fair, this was true last year. The cryptocurrency industry, fresh off its 2024 election victories, took a victory lap like bitcoin the price soared to more than $120,000 and legislation seemed imminent. Things have soured a bit 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 begun proposing rules for stablecoin companies based on last year’s GENIUS Act, lawmakers are seriously considering reforms to US crypto tax policy, and it really looks like this industry has consolidated to the point that it can’t be dismissed.
So what’s next? The industry continues to seek tax reform, with a de minimis exemption for crypto transactions, hoping that the market structure bill becomes law without overburdening the industry and, of course, looking ahead to November, when the United States will elect the next Congress.
We’ll revisit these topics next month at Consensus Miami, our annual shindig that brings basically everyone together.
You’ll hear from top lawmakers like Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Ashley Moody, regulators like CFTC Chairman Mike Selig and White House cryptocurrency point man Patrick Witt, and congressional staff during the three-day conference. Congressman Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), who recently introduced a new version of the Parity Act to address cryptocurrency taxes, will participate in a discussion on the bill. We will also organize a meeting for people interested in talking about the elections or, in general, the political landscape.
And we’re bringing back the Policy and Regulation Summit: a full day and full stage, dedicated to exploring key policy and regulatory issues in depth.
The policy summit is designed to explore some of the biggest questions that lawmakers, regulators, compliance officials and/or developers have to answer right now, including whether and how decentralized finance can comply with anti-money laundering rules, how to deal with taxes in the new 1099-DA era, what the deal is with the Clarity Act, and how states are addressing this sector.
We will have a full series of sessions focused on the 2026 midterm elections, including how the cryptocurrency industry is participating 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 the head of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, Taylor Lindman, former IRS officials Seth Wilks and Raj Mukherjee, and Lucy Hynes of the National Futures Association, among many others.
We are going to close the Policy Summit (and really the entire Consensus) with a debate on one of the most important topics in the country right now: prediction markets. Are they just gambling? Or are prediction markets a novel financial instrument? And who should regulate these products?
These questions will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, but we’ll bring you a preview of the arguments on May 7. Stop by (discount code in link) and say hello.
Tuesday
- 14:00 UTC (10:00 am ET) The Senate Banking Committee will hold the nomination hearing for Kevin Warsh, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve.
If you have any ideas or questions about what I should discuss next week or any other feedback you would like to share, feel free to email me at [email protected] or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.
You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.
See you next week!
