Bimoo

It's a good time for a narrative shift from memecoins back to utility anyway.

We're heading into a policy environment that should allow founders to build real products and services that have been "blocked by legal" for years.

Memes are fun, but so is rebuilding the internet 🙌

Outside counsel and consultants are shifting their view on doing crypto business in the USA at light speed.

Everyone expects a massive reduction in regulatory risk.

Nobody knows exactly what's going to happen, but it's enough that the new conventional wisdom is "stay here."

🇺🇸

President Trump will take office on January 20.

Crypto policy will immediately and significantly shift when new leaders take over the federal agencies.

Between now and then, the outgoing administration may be busy finalizing rules and filing enforcement actions.

Stay frosty 🥶

One way to understand the impact of the presidential election on crypto policy:

Trump would be like playing on easy mode, Harris like hard mode.

But it's the same game — working with Congress, fighting in the courts, etc. — and we'll win either way. Crypto isn't going anywhere.

The SEC spent years saying "tokens are securities."

Then last month they took it back, pretended they didn't say it at all, and fake apologized for the confusion it caused.

Sorry, but @atuminelli and I aren't buying it, so we told the truth 👇
https://blockworks.co/news/sec-wrong-about-crypto-asset-securities

1/ As U.S. regulators continue their war on crypto, many founders are thinking about geofencing as a compliance strategy.

It can work, but only if it's done right.

That’s why @dbarabander and I wrote this Practical Guide to Geofencing:
https://blog.variant.fund/newsletter-legal-regulatory-affairs

No one said rebuilding the global financial system would be easy, and hard things tend to hurt. Sentiment in crypto is scary bad right now.

But as Churchill said, "success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

Keep grinding. In the end, we win.

The SEC sank to new lows yesterday.

Since day one, the SEC has said tokens *are* securities, even though that makes no sense as a matter of law.

Yesterday in the Binance case, they finally admit that's wrong — and gaslight a federal court about YEARS of their own arguments 🤯

h/t @iampaulgrewal for posting on X:

As you see settlements like eToro come out of the SEC and other regulators heading into their fiscal year end this month, just remember:

Settlements are not law.

They're just what someone was willing to pay to get out of an enforcement action—an economic decision to flee rather than fight.

The rest of us fight on.

Yesterday I asked "what questions do you have about crypto law and policy" on both Warpcast and X.

The engagement here was 1000x higher value. X was basically "why aren't my coins pumping?" Here we had substantive discussion about a handful of really interesting issues.

Bullish 🔥

This was fun. I think I answered everything that came in yesterday. Keep dropping Qs here if you have them and I'll keep responding 🫡

What do you not understand about crypto law or policy that you wish someone would ELI5?

Honestly feeling emotional after the first ever DeFi hearing in Congress today 🥹

I remember years ago when DeFi was like ten projects that no one thought would amount to anything. Now it's on full display in the halls of power in DC 🙌

This is *so* powerful from @atuminelli 🔥

Millions of Americans are drowned in advertisements for sports gambling all day every day.

Regulators seem fine with this, as long as there's a little note saying "gambling problem? call this number."

But don't you dare think about investing in crypto 🙃

There's nothing like interacting with a bank to remind you how much better DeFi is than TradFi and why we're doing this very, very hard thing in the first place.

Heads down, keep going, we'll get there before we know it 🫡

Reminder that the SEC, CFTC, and other regulators have their fiscal year end on September 30.

It's typical in September to see a flurry of enforcement actions as they shore up their performance reports and budget requests for Congress.

It could be a busy month.

The SEC has fully lost the plot.

The idea that a financial markets regulator established in the 1930s would have jurisdiction over digital art in the 2020s defies not only common sense but also the SEC's statutory authority.

Thanks to @opensea for fighting the good fight 🫡

Literally not legal advice for founders:

Politics is loud but there's nothing actionable to take from it right now.

Trump says he's for crypto. Harris's silence says she's against. There's doubt and hope for both. Who wins is a 50/50 toss-up.

All you can do is wait and see.

VP Harris in her speech on economic policy today: "I will focus on cutting needless bureaucracy and unnecessary regulatory red tape, encouraging innovative technologies while protecting consumers, and creating a stable business environment with consistent and transparent rules of the road."

Sounds good. Lacks detail.

Worship or despise them, you can't deny that Trump-Vance have validated crypto as a platform-level issue worthy of attention at the top of the ticket.

This is why surrogates for Harris-Walz are struggling to win over any of the crypto vote.

"Crypto for Harris" is a hard sell if Harris refuses to even mention crypto.