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Crypto Regulation: Policy, Innovation, and Stablecoins Explained

August 12, 2025 / 38:06

This episode covers cryptocurrency regulation, challenges in digital assets, and insights from experts Jessica Waktail and Tim Msad. Key discussions include the need for regulatory clarity, the role of decentralized finance, and the implications of fraud in the crypto space.

Jessica Waktail, a professor at Wharton and former chief economist at the SEC, discusses the unique challenges of regulating digital assets, emphasizing the tension between decentralization and existing regulatory frameworks. She highlights the intertwined nature of securities and non-securities within the crypto ecosystem.

Tim Msad, a senior fellow at Harvard and former chairman of the CFTC, adds that digital assets should not be viewed as a single asset class but as a technology with various applications. He stresses the need for a clear regulatory framework that addresses the gaps in the current system.

Both guests agree that while regulatory uncertainty exists, it is overstated in terms of its impact on innovation. They discuss the importance of balancing regulation with the need for market integrity and consumer protection.

The episode concludes with a discussion on the future of stable coins and the regulatory landscape, emphasizing the importance of creating a framework that supports innovation without undermining existing financial markets.

TLDR

Experts discuss cryptocurrency regulation, challenges, and the future of digital assets in finance.

Episode

38:06
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Welcome everyone to the future of finance podcast here at the Wharton School. My name is Itai Goldstein. I'm a
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professor in the finance department and currently the chair of the finance department and we are focusing the
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second season of the future of finance uh podcast on cryptocurrencies uh digital assets uh decentralized finance
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and everything related to that. These are new innovations that are promising to change the world of finance, the way
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that we trade, the way that we pay uh and the financial system uh more generally. And an important part of the
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story of uh cryptocurrencies and digital assets is certainly regulation. Some people will say that we have too much uh
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regulation or regulatory uncertainty and that this is stifling innovation in this
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space and others will say that we need regulation and maybe we need even more regulation because there are many
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threats potential fraud uh and potential risk for uh the system as a whole uh what we think of as systemic risk. So
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those are issues that we want to discuss here today in uh this uh episode of the
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second uh season. Uh and we have two perfect guests uh to talk about uh these uh these issues. Uh one is uh Jessica
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Waktail who is the Dr. Bruce I Jacobs Professor of Quantitative Finance here at the Wharton School. So I've been here
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with Jessica over the last 20 years or so. I think she arrived one year before me. uh and uh she uh thought a lot about
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the regulatory aspects of uh digital assets and cryptocurrency because she just came back from serving
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as the chief economist at the SEC, the Securities and Exchange uh Commission. Uh welcome uh Jessica.
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>> Thanks so much for having me. I'm happy to be here. And then the second guest
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that we have is uh Tim Msad who is currently senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
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University. Uh he also has a vast experience in uh policy and thought a lot about uh crypto and digital assets
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among other things. He is the former chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the CFTC
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and he has been participating in many of our events here at the Whartalon Initiative on Financial Policy and
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Regulation uh Wiffer where we have been thinking quite a bit about the regulatory aspects of uh crypto and
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digital assets. Hello Tim. >> Hi, thank you for having me. >> So with this introduction, let's uh dive
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right in. There's a lot uh to discuss and I want to start from uh the basics.
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Uh we talk a lot about regulation in the space of digital assets. Uh but this is
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not disconnected from broader financial regulation and regulation that we have in other markets and other financial
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institutions. So I want to take a step back and understand a little better what is potentially special about uh digital
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assets and why is regulation of digital assets potentially different uh than regulation in other areas of the
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financial system. Uh so Jessica maybe you can start with that. >> Sure. Um happy to start. Uh so I think
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there's a couple things to be considered. One is that the original vision of uh cryptocurrency uh going
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back to you know the white paper um uh the Bitcoin white paper is one of decentralization
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and that's going to create a tension with our regulatory system and moving more towards the present um
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this is a situation where securities and non-securities are inseparable and just to put it in non um digital
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asset terms. We don't normally use gold to say buy Apple stock on the New York
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Stock Exchange. We don't really know how that might work and that's the situation
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that we have with crypto platforms. I think another challenge is that the crypto ecosystem developed outside of
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the regulatory system and that's created a bit of a chicken and egg problem. So in
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the traditional financial system we have securities that trade on registered exchanges. That's a very important part.
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It's not the whole financial system by any means, but it's a very important
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part of how um institutions and retail interact with the financial system, but what do you do when both the tokens,
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which are kind of like the equities here, and the platforms are unregistered? You don't you need one to
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go first, but neither can operate while the other is still unregistered. So I so
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I think that those um decentralization the intertwined notion of securities and non-securities and the chicken and egg
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problem are three challenges uh that would need to be overcome. >> Very good. Tim, do you want to weigh in?
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>> Sure. Well, I would first say the the problem is that we speak of digital
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assets as if it's an asset class and it isn't. It's a technology. We're talking
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about blockchain and tokenization technologies which can be used in all sorts of ways. You can have tokenization
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of securities of stocks and bonds and potentially other real world assets or other financial instruments. You can
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have network tokens of blockchains which is what Bitcoin and ETH are. You can have tokens that are really for
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consumption as in games. You can have meme coins. you're going to have collectibles. So, we can't really
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regulate digital assets per se. What we need to do in regulation is really three
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things. One is we have to address the gap we have in the United States with respect to regulation which is that in
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so far as some tokens aren't securities but are financial instruments whether
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you want to call them commodities or something like commodities we don't have
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a federal regulator for that spot market and that's been something that lots of
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people have recognized but we haven't done anything about it. Secondly, we do
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need greater clarity in when is a token a security, when is it not a security. And as Jessica said, that's, you know,
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there's um a lot of gray areas to that because tokens can change over time, if
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you will. Um and the third thing we need to do is make sure that the rules we have about how to use this technology
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are neutral or that is the rules we have for things like recordkeeping, custody, clearance and settlement should
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be technologically neutral. They shouldn't be inhibiting use of this technology but I don't think they should
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be promoting it per se either uh also let the market decide that. So I think what both of you are saying
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is pointing to one friction that has been on the minds of many people who are observing this. uh I would say maybe
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more generally with financial regulation but in particular when it comes to uh digital assets and this is the potential
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uh fragmentation the fact that uh it is not clear who should regulate uh what and then you have some tensions you have
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different rules coming from different uh uh agencies uh and that creates even uh
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greater uncertainty. So is that a a bug that we can uh overcome or is that just a feature of the system that we are
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dealing with? >> It certainly has been a cause of some of the difficulty in addressing this. You
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know, we have two market regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading
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Commission. And when you have a technology that allows for the development of innovative products that
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kind of cut across those agencies jurisdictional lines that becomes very challenging. If for example we had a
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unitary regulator as some jurisdictions do it be it is easier to address financial innovations because you say
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all right my my jurisdiction covers all financial instruments. I see kind of this new technology I'm going to address
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that. So we have been saddled with that. I do think that that's one of the reasons when we think about the solution
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about how to regulate we actually need to bring the agencies closer together. A lot of people say well what we need is
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very clear lines of jurisdiction. What the CFTC regulates and what the SEC regulates and that all sounds good but
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in fact there are gray areas here. You can have tokens which kind of seem to be securities at first but then can become
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commodities effectively because they are decentralized. So and again you want rules on how to use this technology
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which are reasonably consistent between the two agencies. So I think the solution lies in
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bringing the agencies closer together in various ways. You don't have to merge
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them. uh that's been suggested many times before and we've never wanted to
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take that step, but we do have to create ways that they're going to work together
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on on these issues. >> So Jessica, what is your take on fragmentation? Uh obviously you just
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experienced some of it in DC. I don't know how much you want to >> Sure. Well, I I'm I I'll I'll say a
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couple things and I'll um I think uh um Tim uh said it well, which is um I I've
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I don't believe that bringing that creating one financial regulator actually is the answer here, but this is
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clearly something that the CFTC and the SEC uh would will have to and actually do currently work together on. Um and
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that's something that both agencies know how to do. And it does it does you know
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at the margin create some frictions and perhaps slows them things down a little bit. But I I believe in my experience
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the extent to which that happens is somewhat overstated. And I think that fragmentation itself is
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not really the problem that we have. Um I mean I think the the issue is that some of these problems are difficult
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problems and it's not obvious what the solutions are. uh but I think that the
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many issues actually are similar to the types of questions that the SEC has worked on for many decades. Um so I I
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generally think both here and in other settings that the you know fragmentation of the US financial market story is a
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little overstated. I think that there's strengths to our system visav other jurisdictions. You know, for one thing,
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we have a strong and experienced market regulator and not all jurisdictions have
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that. Um, and I think that's been very helpful for the development of financial
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markets. And I think having the CFTC and the SEC separate has allowed for experimentation also. So in some cases
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um you know for some sets of rules and this is outside of crypto uh the CFTC has gone first and the SEC has been able
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to see how things have worked out and learn from that and vice versa. So so I think that there's actually some real
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benefits to our system. >> Yeah, I you know I I would agree with a lot of that. I don't mean to suggest
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that fragmentation is the main problem here. Um and you know I do think there are benefits to the fact that we've had
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two regulators. Um, but I do think when Congress thinks about what to do here, um, it's not just
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going to be a simple process of writing legislation that says, "Okay, this is a
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digital commodity. Uh, CFTC go regulate that because um those are, you know, those are difficult questions and I just
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think we want the two agencies working together and I agree they're they're
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capable of that um particularly when they're led by chairs who have that mentality. So one of the biggest
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questions when it comes to regulation and it's not directly what we talked about but follows up on that is uh the
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idea that because of regulation and because of regulatory uncertainty we don't see uh as much innovation in the
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space of digital assets and decentralized finance as we would have hoped. And uh proponents of this theory
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would say that here we have a set of new technologies that uh promise to revolutionize the the way we do finance
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and monetary economics. Um but then because of all these uh uh regulations and regulatory uncertainty and all
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potential political issues um there is just not enough uh innovation and we are uh falling behind. Uh so what what is
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your take on that? I think it's overblown. Uh I, you know, the industry loves to say this. Uh and sure, you
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know, you could certainly make the argument that gee, if we had regulatory clarity, uh people could, you know, more
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easily launch products, raise money, they wouldn't even consider doing something abroad and so forth. But in
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the grand scheme of things, I think it's an overblown argument. Um I don't think
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uh you know that's what's preventing um this technology from displacing JP
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Morgan or something like that you know which sometimes uh crypto enthusiasts love to say oh this is really going to
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transform finance. I think it's an important technology. I think we will see it used in a lot of ways. I think
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we're getting there. I don't think we're as far behind other jurisdictions as uh
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some would have. >> Jessica, do you agree with that? Uh yes, I do. Um I I'll add a couple points. One
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is that um the sort of broad crypto space developed for years uh really without this it developed to be actually quite
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large and significant I would say um relative to where it started without the regulatory certainty. Um I I think it's
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possible that the regulatory uncertainty has impeded some of the traditional financial players from having as large a
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role in crypto as they might otherwise. But the fact is crypto has generally been a retail and sort of decentralized
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driven business anyways. So um I I do agree that this is a overblown argument. That said, I mean, I think regulatory
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clarity would be quite helpful. >> So, going a little deeper into why we need regulation to begin with, I would
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say one issue that is general in in finance uh but seems to be particularly prevalent when it comes to uh digital
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assets is fraud. And we have seen uh I would say a fair share of of fraud uh probably more than uh was anticipated uh
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initially and and this has uh caused a lot of concern and and led to a call for more uh regulation. Um what what do you
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think about that? So why do we see so much fraud in this uh space and is there a clear way forward when we can uh avoid
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it or is that just going to be part of the system? Well, I think we've seen a
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lot of fraud and manipulation for and other problems for two reasons. Um, one is it is an unregulated sector largely
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at least the um what we what we often call the spot market in tokens that are not securities and of course the crypto
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industry is has argued that basically most security most tokens are not securities. Um that's unregulated number
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one and it's also um easy to enter. uh you can be you know 18 or 20 year years
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old and in college and create a token or create an app and launch that and who knows you know you might make a lot of
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money at it. Um but you also therefore have a lot of people uh as you do in any kind of um area of financial activity
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who are looking to make a quick buck and often not through the most uh ethical means. And so you have pump and dump
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schemes. You have a lot of wash trading on platforms. Wash trading is where people essentially trade with themselves
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to push up the price uh of something or to make it appear there's more interest
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than there is. We saw with the whole ICO phenomenon of people selling tokens without good disclosure. Um so you know
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it's not surprising uh that we've had all this. Um and again it's the reason
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why we need a comprehensive sort of regulatory approach to it. >> Yeah, I would say that it's surprising
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from the point of view of you know our current markets some of the most visible parts do not appear to be
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rife with with fraud. Now, that's I think in part, you know, we've never
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done the experiment, but I think in large part because of our um securities regime going back to the 30s. Um but the
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point is people forget that we've got that. It becomes in the background. It's
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like, you know, part of the air we breathe. It's like, you know, the fish in the water. And so we forget that
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that's protecting us from what would otherwise be probably rampant fraud in traditional securities as well. So
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crypto developed and it didn't really have this this backing. Um so I'm actually not sure it's more prevalent.
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Um maybe it is. We don't have the data. Um part of the data is that we don't
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have the part of the issue is that we don't have the regulations. Um but you
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know there's plenty of fraud in the um sort of dark corners of the equity markets too with very small um equity
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securities that don't trade on exchanges. And the other side of uh regulation, the
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other reason why we have regulation in financial markets more generally is the concern about systemic risk. Uh and the
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idea that if there is a problem in one type of asset, one type of institution, this is going to spill over affecting
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the rest of the financial system and uh ultimately also the real economy. uh this has been mentioned uh in the
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context of uh cryptocurrencies and digital assets but it's not clear that this is at this point big enough uh to
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worry us. Uh what is your take on that? >> I'll just quickly jump in and say I I
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don't think crypto at the present time is large enough to to pose a systemic
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risk. I tend to think that the nature of some of these contracts is not such that
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it would normally tend itself to systemic risk because they're more equity type contracts. Um but of course
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stable coins which perhaps we'll talk about are big exception because those are demand deposit contracts like like a
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deposit in a bank account and so um in some sense you could say are asking for trouble.
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>> Yeah, I I I would agree with that. Um the only thing I would add though is
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that you know when we talk about systemic risk it's um it's hard to identify where that's going to come
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from. Uh you know and and you can imagine scenarios where because of the overall context something happens in
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crypto it's gotten a little bigger and maybe the overall environment uh has some other factors that are contributing
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to to anxiety or to to uh concern you know. So it's it's the proverbial uh
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you know thing of the butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil or whatever. Um but
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I would agree that today the sector is is not so large that it would be my top concern for systemic risk. That's for
00:20:47
sure. >> Right. But you did mention uh stable coin uh Jessica and uh I would say this
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is potentially an area where we might see it because the whole point of stable coin is to offer stability and then you
00:21:01
have the usual problem where uh you commit to certain payments but uh the underlying assets might not support it
00:21:08
and this might generate a run. I should say we have another episode where we talk in detail about uh stable coin and
00:21:14
go into some of these uh issues. Uh so that that might be one place where we might uh fear about uh systemic risk and
00:21:23
and that is a good segment to thinking a bit more about uh stable coin because if
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we are focusing on regulation I would say stable coin is one area where uh there is a clearer path for uh
00:21:37
regulation and as we speak the there is a bill that is making its way through uh
00:21:42
congress. Um so what is your take on uh stable coin uh the the regulatory aspects of it where we are and are we
00:21:51
headed in the right direction? >> Um happy to take that one first. I think
00:21:56
we're headed in the right direction. Uh as you mentioned while the at the time
00:22:01
we're recording this the Genius Act is uh coming up uh soon for a vote in the
00:22:08
House. it may very well uh have gone to the president by the time this is aired.
00:22:13
The Genius Act creates a basic framework for the regulation of stable coins and I
00:22:19
think it gets um some things right. Uh it's good on uh some of the basic credential requirements that we would
00:22:26
want to see. I mean a stable coin is a token whose value is pegged uh to the dollar to another fiat currency or or to
00:22:36
another sort of asset. Of course, there can be stable coins that are tied to other crypto tokens. I'm just talking
00:22:42
about the ones that are tied to uh fiat currencies. And so, the legislation that is
00:22:48
currently being considered, a stable coin issuer, you know, would be required to have full reserves backing the stable
00:22:55
coins that it's issued, meaning for every token, you have to hold that dollar. You have to conservatively
00:23:00
invest it. There are limitations on the activities of stable coin issuers, and that's all good. Um, I do think there
00:23:07
are some weaknesses in the legislation. We can get into those if you want. Um, but you know, the real question is will
00:23:15
this market grow significantly and we'll have to see. Um, there are a lot of
00:23:21
elements to payments and why people choose certain payment instruments and the big volume of payments of course is
00:23:26
not retail, it's businessto business. And will we see uh large use of stable
00:23:34
coins among businesses? Um that's not clear. We can get into that uh if you like.
00:23:41
>> Yeah. So Jessica, I I'll give you an opportunity to uh weigh in. >> Sure. And I I would agree. I think this
00:23:48
is directionally right. Um I think anything and uh it you described it well. anything with a structure like a
00:23:56
stable coin is uh is going to have some kind of run risk and I I think that can be mitigated by the certain safeguards
00:24:05
that um you know Congress is putting in about restrictions about what they can hold and the the requirements for
00:24:12
audits. I'll add that there is this question here about how stable coins relate to the vast money market fund
00:24:22
industry. Um, there's this question about whether stable coins pay interest.
00:24:27
Um, I'm not an attorney. My understanding is that this this is still a little bit of a gray area. Um,
00:24:34
people might want a stable coin that pays interest. Um, but currently it's, you know, money market funds. This is
00:24:42
how they differentiate themselves. And the more stable coins come to look like money market funds, the more we might
00:24:49
start to see the tendency for regulatory arbitrage versus the money market fund regime. And that's probably an area
00:24:55
where we don't want a race to the bottom. >> Yeah. And we're already seeing tokenized
00:25:00
money market funds. And I agree there are going to be a lot of um participants who want an interestbearing um tokenized
00:25:10
instrument. I think, you know, for where we are, I think it made sense to stay in
00:25:16
the legislation as it currently does that stable coins can't pay interest, but there's clearly going to be the
00:25:22
development of tokenized products that pay interest. Now, whether those are more accountbased in some way, you know,
00:25:30
tokenized deposits or deposit tokens um by banks, uh that's another uh innovation that we may very well see and
00:25:39
not in in the not too distant future. So, how big do you think this sector is going to be going forward? You started
00:25:46
talking about that. >> I'll let Jessica make the prediction. >> I I really think this is just this is
00:25:53
just impossible to say. Um I I really think it just depends on on too many things. um and in part on whether some
00:26:02
of the more optimistic claims for the crypto sector as a whole bear out because that's obviously one of the
00:26:10
possible uses for stable coins. >> Yeah. And when you when you think about
00:26:14
the use cases, I mean, clearly people who are in countries with weak currencies or high inflation, who want
00:26:23
access to the dollar and who can't get a US dollar bank account might turn to
00:26:28
stable coins, and they are um clearly to the extent we're talking about trading
00:26:34
tokenized assets on chain, you need onchain cash. That's what a stable coin is. Though again you might see tokenized
00:26:43
money market funds used for that as well. So if you see tokenization of other products and trading on chain that
00:26:49
use case could grow. But again when you look at sort of businessto business payments that now use you know chips or
00:26:57
the fed wire are they going to suddenly move to stable coins? There's a lot of
00:27:01
issues there and uh that's why it's so hard to predict this market. >> Right. So going back to the uh topic of
00:27:10
uh regulation uh I think we had a good discussion on what are the reasons for regulation what's good about the current
00:27:17
framework what's not so good what could be improved uh one argument that often
00:27:22
comes up is that the US is falling behind other jurisdictions and Europe is often mentioned as uh you know a system
00:27:30
where uh they acted uh faster and they have a more uniform approach there is uh Mika uh framework uh that that is uh
00:27:41
supposed to uh capture the the whole system of uh digital assets and stable coins and so on. Um so what what is your
00:27:50
take on uh the issue of uh the US versus other places and what might explain why
00:27:57
the US has not done so well on this? I don't think we're as far behind as uh
00:28:02
some crypto enthusiasts might uh lead you to believe. Yes, Europe has imple has passed ma but they still have to
00:28:10
implement ma and implementation of ma involves the 27 member countries in many cases writing rules. Uh that is a
00:28:20
challenging process. I just held a 4-day training session at Harvard for regulators around the world on digital
00:28:26
assets and a lot of them were saying no we still face a lot of the challenges that the US faces and even with Mika for
00:28:33
example it regulates things that aren't financial instruments. Uh so they actually have
00:28:42
even in their law the similar challenges that we have on when is something a security, when is it not a security, if
00:28:49
it's not a security, what is it? Um so you know we're getting there. Um it may
00:28:56
not be as fast as uh as we'd like. Uh clearly the Trump administration wants
00:29:01
to move forward. Uh Congress uh wants to move forward. Um so I don't think this
00:29:07
is uh you know as big a problem as the industry might like you to believe but I do want to see us you know develop a
00:29:16
regulatory framework so that we can see how this tech how this technology can be
00:29:21
used. >> Uh Jessica >> I mean I'll I'll say that the the commission has indicated um that people
00:29:29
should come in and discuss their product. So I I I think that the case that we are currently impeding
00:29:38
innovation is is pretty weak. Um and the US just has an enormous financial market
00:29:45
just in absolute as well as in relative terms. So I don't I don't see evidence
00:29:49
that we've fallen behind here. Um though I do think that it's going to be
00:29:56
valuable to solve some of the problems that we've been discussing. uh that's
00:30:01
that's going to be helpful but um I I think that there's there's a commitment
00:30:07
to doing so and so that's that's really I think what people need in terms of you
00:30:12
know putting these ideas forward again I don't think that the barrier at this
00:30:17
point is not a regulatory one >> okay so as we are coming close to the end of this episode I would like to
00:30:25
maybe offer you a chance to kind of summarize your uh view on future regulation and what you would like to to
00:30:32
see going forward. So maybe in in you know 30 seconds or so uh if you were to envision a regulatory framework that uh
00:30:41
will uh take care of this uh space of digital assets and have us go into a world of innovation and the future of
00:30:50
finance if you want. Uh what do you think it should include and how do you think it should look like?
00:30:57
Tim maybe you can start. >> Sure. Well, um, the first thing I would say is while this is a very important
00:31:03
technology, might be used in lots of ways, we want to be sure that the regulation
00:31:11
we develop does not undermine our existing markets. The securities and derivatives markets that we have and and
00:31:20
the uh equity and debt markets that we have are so important to the to the world, not just to the US economy.
00:31:28
They're very very large $120 trillion market cap uh securities alone. Um and
00:31:36
when I say undermine, what I mean is we don't want to rewrite the securities laws in ways that
00:31:43
undermine a framework that's been developed very thoughtfully and carefully over a hundred years. Uh we
00:31:49
don't need to create, you know, a lot of exceptions uh to promote the technology.
00:31:54
We want techn technologically neutral rules but you know again uh we need to be careful. So the three things we need
00:32:02
to do are I think one create a framework for regulation for what we typically call the spot market in digital tokens
00:32:15
that are not securities to the extent they're financial instruments. Number two, provide greater clarity as to how
00:32:24
we regulate tokens, whether they should be regulated as securities or not. And you know, the SEC is working on that
00:32:31
today. And that's not a something that can be easily defined in a statute in a
00:32:36
couple of paragraphs because it depends on does the token represent an interest in the business, is there a capital
00:32:43
raising going on, how might the token change over time, things like that. And the third thing we need to do is again
00:32:52
make sure our rules on things like how you tokenize assets and how you keep records and how you custody uh tokens
00:33:02
and how clearance and settlement works. We want to make sure our rules work for this technology. Again, they shouldn't
00:33:09
be promoting it excessively, but they shouldn't be inhibiting it either. Jessica.
00:33:17
>> Um yeah, I I agree that is a that is a great vision and that that is absolutely
00:33:21
where where we want to get. Um uh I will just bring up the um the case of the exchange traded fund. So that was a case
00:33:31
where there was an innovation and it it solved a very real problem and now these
00:33:35
are very a very important part of our financial system and this is a completely different situation but I
00:33:42
think it's it is similar in the sense that we've seen an innovation and it
00:33:46
exists to solve problems that actually people have and they like it for that reason. So a path towards bringing this
00:33:55
into the regulatory system I think is key and um I think that the the three elements which probably will involve
00:34:04
some kind of temporary relief as is what's happened with ETFs um that that will probably be part of it. Um also you
00:34:12
know the the sort of chicken and egg problem. Um and I think if if these three elements are solved I think we'll
00:34:19
be on our way. One of them is decentralization. Um, one is uh the the the fact that non-securities and
00:34:27
securities are going to be traded together. That ties very intimately into this question of the fact that um the
00:34:33
CFTC currently does not have the authority to act as a regulator in the same sense as the SEC over um
00:34:40
nonsecurity markets. Um and uh lastly, you know, what do you do about the fact that these are um you know, the
00:34:48
unregistered trading on nonregistered ex platforms? Um so I think solving those three pieces which will involve
00:34:57
some tricky line drawing at least in the short run. Um that's what I would like
00:35:03
to see. >> Yeah. Yeah, and if I could just add maybe a word on the decentralization
00:35:08
point um because I agree that is one of the aspects of the technology that is quite novel quite interesting and the
00:35:17
question though is what do we really mean by decentralization and what is truly decentralized finance? Um clearly
00:35:25
if you have software protocol that operates autonomously that people can use on their own without going through
00:35:32
an intermediary you would call that decentralized. But what we actually see in the world is
00:35:40
a lot of what even commissioner Hester Pur who's quite sympathetic to the crypto industry recently called Dino
00:35:46
decentralized and name only. uh because you have that protocol but then you have
00:35:51
a business that's facilitating how people use it or a business that's administering or maintaining that and
00:35:58
and that's where it's important to I think take the position that look decentralization doesn't equate to a
00:36:06
regulatory pass. We have to think about what is the activity that's taking place
00:36:12
and how do we achieve the same regulatory objectives. Now, maybe some of those objectives we don't worry
00:36:18
about. If I'm custodying my own assets, then maybe I don't worry about, you
00:36:23
know, what someone might do with them because I'm holding on to them. But, you
00:36:29
know, we still want market integrity. We still want to prevent fraud and manipulation. And it's not the case that
00:36:36
just because it involves some kind of autonomous software that we should say, okay, no regulation. We just have to
00:36:43
figure out who are the actors who are in a position to meet some of our regulatory objectives and how do we meet
00:36:50
those. >> Yeah, those are great points and uh certainly the issue of decentralization
00:36:56
is central uh to this uh fintech revolution and digital assets uh more generally. Uh and this is certainly
00:37:06
something to to think about how the financial system is going to look like going forward and how decentralized it's
00:37:11
going to be. But yeah, I think we have to to stop here. So, thank you very much Tim and Jessica for this very thoughtful
00:37:18
conversation on regulation and decentralized finance, digital assets, how regulation is affecting the
00:37:24
innovation and what we should expect from regulation uh going forward. As I mentioned, we have been discussing these
00:37:30
issues in the Walton initiative on financial policy and regulation whiffer and we have a few white papers that have
00:37:37
been commissioned to talk about regulation uh in this uh space and there's certainly a lot uh to think
00:37:43
about here and we will continue the discussion of uh digital assets in uh other episodes uh of this uh future
00:37:52
finance uh podcast. So uh thank you everyone for listening. >> Thank you. Thank you.

Episode Highlights

  • The Future of Finance Podcast
    Exploring the impact of cryptocurrencies and digital assets on finance.
    “These are new innovations that are promising to change the world of finance.”
    @ 00m 33s
    August 12, 2025
  • Regulatory Challenges in Crypto
    Experts discuss the complexities of regulating digital assets and the need for clarity.
    “We need greater clarity in when is a token a security, when is it not?”
    @ 06m 49s
    August 12, 2025
  • The Genius Act and Stable Coins
    The Genius Act aims to regulate stable coins, requiring full reserves and conservative investments.
    “A stable coin issuer would be required to have full reserves backing the stable coins.”
    @ 22m 50s
    August 12, 2025
  • Regulatory Challenges in the US
    Discussion on the US regulatory landscape compared to Europe, highlighting challenges and progress.
    “I don’t think we’re as far behind as some crypto enthusiasts might lead you to believe.”
    @ 28m 00s
    August 12, 2025
  • Future of Digital Assets Regulation
    Experts discuss the future of regulation in digital assets and the need for a balanced framework.
    “We want to make sure our rules work for this technology.”
    @ 33m 09s
    August 12, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • These are new innovations that are promising to change the world of finance.
    Crypto Regulation: Policy, Innovation, and Stablecoins Explained
  • We need greater clarity in when is a token a security, when is it not?
    Crypto Regulation: Policy, Innovation, and Stablecoins Explained
  • The industry loves to say this, but I think it’s an overblown argument.
    Crypto Regulation: Policy, Innovation, and Stablecoins Explained
  • The real question is will this market grow significantly?
    Crypto Regulation: Policy, Innovation, and Stablecoins Explained
  • We don't want to rewrite the securities laws in ways that undermine a framework.
    Crypto Regulation: Policy, Innovation, and Stablecoins Explained
  • Decentralization doesn't equate to a regulatory pass.
    Crypto Regulation: Policy, Innovation, and Stablecoins Explained

Key Moments

  • Introduction00:07
  • Expert Insights01:31
  • Innovation Debate13:01
  • Fraud Concerns15:37
  • Stable Coin Regulation21:46
  • Regulatory Comparison27:22
  • Future Predictions30:57
  • Decentralization Debate35:11

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown