Bits + Bips: What CFTC Oversight Could Mean For Crypto As Trump's Chair Pick Crosses Key Senate Hurdle - Ep. 957
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President Donald Trump's pick for chair, Mike Selig, has cleared the Senate Agriculture Committee just as lawmakers look set to hand over crypto oversight to the agency.
In this episode, former CFTC Chair Chris Giancarlo joins Unchained Executive Editor Steven Ehrlich to unpack Selig's Senate hearing. Chris shares his experience working with Mike, why the CFTC should get more resources to handle crypto and crypto's unique commodity trading structure.
He also touches on the challenges the agency could face regulating crypto, whether exchanges should be allowed to continue performing several functions under one umbrella, the timeline for CLARITY and the regulatory path ahead for prediction markets.
Host:
Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained
Guest:
J. Christopher Giancarlo, Former Commissioner of the CTFC
Links:
Unchained:
Prospective CFTC Chair Says It’s ‘Vitally Important to Have a Cop On The Beat’ in Crypto
Senate Committee Shares Bipartisan Draft on Crypto Market Structure Bill
The Chopping Block: When Wall Street Meets DeFi — How Equity Perps and RWAs Redefine Leverage On-Chain
DEX in the City: Are Prediction Markets Gambling, and Who Should Regulate Them?
Polymarket Quietly Relaunches in U.S. in Beta Mode: Report
Timestamps:
🚀 00:00 Introduction
⚡️1:41 Chris details his experience working with Mike Selig
🤔 6:34 Does the CFTC have enough resources to handle crypto?
📽 10:34 Crypto’s unique commodity trading structure
🧱 13:37 The challenges the CFTC could face with crypto's unique trading structure
🤔 15:15 Should crypto exchanges remain vertically integrated?
💡17:25 How DeFi should be regulated
🧏 20:46 Why Chris says crypto perps do not need new laws
🔮 24:49 Mike's confirmation timeline
💥 25:46 Why prediction markets are important
👀 27:57 Why Chris compares the regulatory trajectory of prediction markets to Uber
💡 28:57 What regulations could look like for prediction markets
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White House Crypto Summit: Two Attendees Share Why It Matters - Ep. 797
The election of Donald Trump marked a sea change for U.S. crypto policy.
The symbolism of that transformation was on full display at the White House’s first-ever Crypto Summit, at which President Trump met with several crypto business leaders. But what was actually said behind closed doors? And does this mark the beginning of a truly pro-crypto shift—or just another short-lived political move?
In this episode, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe and former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo break down what really happened at the summit, whether the proposed Bitcoin reserve is a smart idea or a political gimmick, and why some believe the U.S. dollar could one day be backed by BTC.
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
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Guests:
Mike Belshe, CEO at BitGo
Chris Giancarlo, Senior counsel at Willkie Farr & Gallagher and former CFTC chairman
Links
Recent coverage of Unchained on the Bitcoin Reserve and the White House Crypto Summit :
Trump Says He Is Ending Operation Choke Point 2.0
Trump Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Trump's Surprise Crypto Reserve Announcement Iced Out D.C. Insiders
How Did Ripple Sell Trump on XRP in a Crypto Reserve? By Pushing for Solana
Why Trump May Have Chosen This Week to Announce a Strategic Crypto Reserve
Which Crypto Assets Belong in a Reserve? This VC Says Not XRP and ADA
Chris’s article: Crypto neo-privateers could be the solution to hacks
Nic Carter’s tweet on Trump’s crypto endeavours
Omid Malekan’s analogy of the SBR with buying a shirt
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How the U.S. Government Can Protect the Dollar Through Stablecoins - Ep. 655
In this episode, Laura Shin speaks with former CFTC chairman Chris Giancarlo and former CFTC chief innovation officer Daniel Gorfine on the pressing need for the U.S. to safeguard the dollar. They explain why they believe the future of regulation is the government operating nodes on blockchains rather than regulating intermediaries, why even private USD stablecoins will want a USD central bank digital currency, and how China might export the technology behind the digital yuan—and its surveillance capabilities—to other countries. They also touch on how the upcoming U.S. elections could influence crypto policy, why stablecoins are more than just trading instruments, and what the U.S. must do to maintain its financial leadership.
Show highlights:
How governments should embrace blockchain technology to become better at its job, according to Chris
How the financial system needs to change for the younger generations
Whether the U.S. is losing ground in terms of innovation
Why Daniel thinks stablecoins are much more than a trading instrument for crypto
Why Daniel believes that the U.S. is making the regulation of stablecoins “far more complicated than it needs to be”
How Singapore is already giving licenses to USD stablecoin issuers
Whether the dollar should be trademarked to protect it
How Tether has become one of the most profitable companies per employee in history without being under U.S. jurisdiction
Who should be the next chair of the SEC and the need to regulate DeFi in order for it to become mainstream
Why Daniel thinks that some of the criticism of the FIT21 bill “doesn’t hold water”
Why Chris believes that China is lying about not intending to export the technology behind the digital yuan
Whether algorithmic stablecoins should be banned, as proposed in the Lummis-Gillibrand bill
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
First Bits + Bips episode: Bits + Bips: Does Macroeconomics Point to a Potential Crypto Supercycle?
Thank you to our sponsors!
Polkadot
VaultCraft
Guests:
Chris Giancarlo, Former Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, author of CryptoDad
Forbes: ‘Elizabeth Warren’s Anti-Crypto Wing Is A Shrinking Iceberg’, Says Former Top Regulator
FoxBusiness Interview: Elizabeth Warren and others have declared war on cryptocurrency: Chris Giancarlo
Op-ed in the FT Banking Risk & Regulation: Can CBDCs be made safe for democracy?
Daniel Gorfine, Founder & CEO of boutique advisory firm Gattaca Horizons, former Chief Innovation Officer at the U.S. CFTC, and adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center
Opinion: Stablecoin and other digital assets are falsely framed as a choice between personal privacy and national security. We can have both. - MarketWatch
Building digital infrastructure for the future of finance
Links
Stablecoins:
Stablecoins Are Defense Tech by Morgan Beller
Unchained:
Opinion: Regulated Dollar Stablecoins Created by a Proposed New Senate Bill Would be Crypto’s Ultimate Trojan Horse
Tether's Record $4.5 Billion Q1 Profit Highlights Its Dominance of the Stablecoin Industry
SAB 121
Unchained: President Biden Vetoes SAB121 Repeal
FIT21
Unchained: FIT21 Bill Heads to The Senate: Should We Really Be Excited?
Spot Ether ETFs
Unchained: Analysts Up Odds of Spot Ether ETF to 75% as Prometheum Launches Product That Treats ETH as a Security
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92 - The Fight for the Future of Money | CryptoDad Chris Giancarlo
Chris Giancarlo, aka CryptoDad, is the former chair of the CFTC, the governing body that oversees Commodity Futures Trading. He's now an advisor in crypto, a senior advisor at a law firm, and of course, a father.
This conversation circles around many of the topics Chris covers in his new book, 'The Fight for the Future of Money.' We move through the specifics like the differences between Futures and Spot ETFs, but then we turn towards the big picture.
What are American values? How do we instantiate them into our digital institutions? America has a remarkable history of saying 'yes,' and the stakes couldn't be higher as America decides whether to say yes to credibly neutral, decentralized protocols.
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------ Topics Covered:
0:00 Intro 6:30 Chris Giancarlo 10:06 CryptoDad & BTC Futures 18:27 Facing Resistance 22:13 Fear & Regulation 28:02 Vindicated 31:55 Futures vs Spot ETFs 41:29 Liquidity & Price 47:00 ETH Futures 53:09 Trust in Money 58:00 Getting the Values Right 1:04:43 Will People Care? 1:10:31 The CFTC’s Approach 1:16:03 Encouraging Innovation 1:21:31 Regulatory Clarity 1:26:44 Free Markets & Free People 1:33:56 The Crypto Dad 1:37:37 Closing & Disclaimers
------ Resources:
CryptoDad on Twitter: https://twitter.com/giancarloMKTS?s=20
The Fight for the Future of Money: https://www.chrisgiancarlo.org/book
----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures