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Ep 45: The CFTC’s Balancing Act of Web3 Innovation & Regulation
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CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger and Sidley Austin’s Kate Lashley discuss the evolving landscape of digital assets regulation in the US. Discover how the CFTC aims to bring crypto onshore through balanced, innovation-friendly policies.
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Transcript
Introduction: Blockchain and Web3 Focus
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello and welcome to this Owl Explains Hootenanny, our podcast series where you can wise up on blockchain and Web3 as we talk to the people seeking to build a better internet.
00:00:17
Speaker
Owl Explains is powered by Avalabs, a blockchain software company and participant in the Avalanche ecosystem. My name is Silvia Sanchez, project manager of Owl Explains, and with that, I'll hand it over to today's amazing speakers.
00:00:33
Speaker
Welcome to our OutExplains
Meet the Moderator and Key Speakers
00:00:36
Speaker
podcast. My name is Ulta Andoni. I am the General Counsel of Enclave Markets, a fully encrypted exchange, not serving United States customers.
00:00:47
Speaker
I'll be your moderator for today's discussion. Whether you're tuning in for the first time or you're a long-time listener, we're very excited to have you here with us. I am truly honored to have today with me Commissioner Summer Mersinger,
00:01:02
Speaker
of the United States Commodity Future Trading Commission. Commissioner Merzinger has been a strong advocate for helpful innovation, especially friendly innovation regulation in the crypto and digital asset space.
00:01:19
Speaker
With extensive experience in financial markets and also policy making, she's been vocal about the need for regg regulatory clarity and a balanced approach that fosters innovation while ensuring market integrity.
00:01:35
Speaker
She's truly been one of the more pro-crypto voices within the CFTC and she has emphasized always the importance of open dialogue between regulators and the industry.
CFTC's Regulatory Approach and Innovations
00:01:49
Speaker
I also have with me today Kate Leshly. She's a partner of the global law firm Sidley Austin and part of Sidley Securities Enforcement and Regulatory Group.
00:02:00
Speaker
Kate advises a broad range of clients on issues relating to derivatives trading and regulation, as well as on the issues relating to blockchain and digital assets.
00:02:13
Speaker
Welcome, ladies, and I'm truly honored to have both of you here. Thanks for having us. Yes, thank you. We're very excited. Thank you, Kate.
00:02:24
Speaker
ah We'll start. A lot of changes happened since January 20th, especially the new administration. Some very positive ah changes, I must say, for the digital asset space.
00:02:39
Speaker
But ah Commissioner Merzinger, I would love to hear from you. How do you see the CFTC's approach to cryptocurrency regulation evolving under this new administration?
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's a great question. um And I'll just start real quick with my standard disclaimer that the views I expressed today are my own and not necessarily those of the um the rest of my ah fellow commissioners or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
00:03:05
Speaker
ah But with that out of the way, you know, it it is kind of a new day for how crypto is going to be looked at across the government and specifically at the CFTC. i think gone are the days of regulation through enforcement ah You know, our our statute, the Commodity Exchange Act, actually instructs us to promote responsible innovation. And that really has not been the approach for the last four years.
00:03:34
Speaker
So I think we're going to take that to heart and open the door and, you know, really... bring crypto into our regulatory fold. So, you know, if if they're going to um trade certain cryptocurrency products that really are classified as derivatives, let's figure out how people can register with us and do so legally.
00:03:57
Speaker
i And, you know, we're not going to just go after people and say you failed to register it as a any variety of categories. I mean, I think we've even had a case where we charged three different categories as possible registration violations, ah yet we didn't have a way for anyone to register in this space. So we're going to figure out how to allow people to come in and register to work with us and really for once kind of promote responsible innovation at the CFTC.
00:04:29
Speaker
And I think you'll see that across the government um moving forward.
Global and Domestic Regulatory Trends
00:04:34
Speaker
That's a very optimistic note, and I appreciate that, especially being the GCO for exchange that is unfortunately actually regulated offshore for ah the reasons that you mentioned previously. previously But Commissioner Mersinger, I know ah we have been looking a little bit, if we discussed this two years ago, we're looking up to some regulatory trends today.
00:04:58
Speaker
And do you think that those global regulatory trends are still going to influence the CFTC's stance when it comes to crypto markets in the coming years? Or do you think we're having this, our own vision? And i and personally, i would love to see the United States becoming home of crypto projects that are located offshore and definitely just speeding that innovation in the United States.
00:05:26
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think you'll feel there's a lot of people that are in careful you know closely involved in the cryptocurrency policy under the Trump administration who have a real interest and and desire to bring a lot of activity that has been happening offshore into the United States and allowing that innovation to flourish here in the U.S. And so the idea is, how do we make sure that whatever regulatory frameworks in place, whatever, you know, if it's legislation, whatever legislative framework is in place, allows for those innovators and those companies to bring that activity on shore so that we can be a leader in this space. And so
00:06:10
Speaker
I think you know that that's going to be the lens through how we approach this. And while you know globally there are a lot of other jurisdictions who are looking at cryptocurrency regulations and how they want to move forward, you know of course we're going to be mindful of how other countries are looking at this because these are global markets, much like all the markets that we regulate and the CFTC.
00:06:34
Speaker
So these are global markets, so we're going to have to recognize – that we need to work closely with our fellow regulators across the globe. But in doing so, we're going to do that through the lens of United States should really be a leader here.
00:06:50
Speaker
and And we want business that should be onshore to be onshore. And products that U.S. customers should be able to access, we want to be able to make that happen in a safe and secure way. So I think, again, we'll be keeping track of what other countries are doing. We'll try to, you know, harmonize where it makes sense. It might not always make sense.
00:07:13
Speaker
We'll probably be very vocal if we start to see kind of location policies that are are unfair. um But at the end of the day, it really is kind of a ah America first approach to um making us the leader in crypto around the globe.
00:07:29
Speaker
Absolutely. And Kate, I'm curious to hear your views from a council perspective. You have advice and continue advising many projects in the United States and and abroad. So curious to hear your views on this.
00:07:43
Speaker
and That's a great question, Alta. We have seen over the last several years so many projects move offshore and have to set up in ways that um don't allow touchpoints, no U.S. investors, thinking about like what are all the jurisdictional touchpoints that could subject a particular platform or project to to U.S. s jurisdiction. We saw in the CFTC's Binance complaint um looking at and all sorts of things like um
00:08:14
Speaker
like service providers and um it's been really challenging without having clear guidelines um to to advise clients um and i think just like the commissioner said There needs to be sort of coordination among the the various regulators to ensure competitiveness in the U.S. and avoid creating opportunities for arbitrage, but making sure that there's there is, you know, a way to for U.S. investors and platforms and projects to to thrive here.
00:08:47
Speaker
And I think we have seen that um really well in the the swaps and and ah swap ah regulatory regime after um the Dodd-Frank. there There really is a level playing field, and and it's worked really well.
00:09:00
Speaker
So hopefully we can we can see that kind of regime here in respect to digital assets. Yep, fully agree with you, Kate. And as we all know, there are some pending bills, and hopefully we're going to have some legislation here in United States soon.
00:09:16
Speaker
ah And one of those bills is also the market structure. But Commissioner Merziger, I'm curious to hear your ah your
Regulatory Approaches and Legal Tools
00:09:24
Speaker
views. When we talk and ah about the regulator and kind of choosing ways which one is the best regulator for our industry, there is a tremendous divide, I have to say, even among us as legal minds and legal counsels in the sense that um is there a perfect regulator or do you agree with giving CFTC the regulatory ah authority authority over digital assets?
00:09:52
Speaker
I do not think that there is an ideal regulatory framework to be honest, but I think it's also a very hard decision to decide between ah two ah regulators and which one is the best. But I'm curious to hear your views.
00:10:08
Speaker
Yeah. And I think the reason um there has been a real interest in the CFTC being the spot market regulator for cryptocurrencies is the fact that we principles-based regulators. So we're not as prescriptive as some of the other financial regulators on we're not as focused on hard and fast rules. It's more, here's the principle that we want you to address when it comes to um you know risk and safety. How you do that is is somewhat up to you, but you have to have a plan in place that addresses you know this principle. And so I think that works very well with digital assets because there is such a wide variety of of what these assets are.
00:10:53
Speaker
Now, what I will say is, you know, the the most important piece for legislation is going to be providing some clarity. How do you define different assets?
00:11:05
Speaker
And, you know, there will be things where an asset, if it is truly a security, that that might not fall into our jurisdiction. But we need to be able to have some sort of framework where people can make that determination.
00:11:20
Speaker
So yeah legislation is really important because it's going to give industry clarity. It's going to allow our agencies to move forward, to create the rules that we need to put in place to really open the door to this kind of um regulation. And, you know, i think the market structure bill is really important, but I also think that You know, the stablecoin legislation is really important. So there's a few bills that I think need to happen to provide clarity overall.
00:11:51
Speaker
um And, you know, i we saw they've made great strides over the last couple of years. And I really think we are at a point where we're going to see things come together and and we could see some laws actually be enacted help.
00:12:08
Speaker
start this process of allowing, you know, digital asset innovation um to really be onshore in the U.S. Yes, and I'm looking forward to that day. And as I said, I'm very optimistic. Hopefully that happens in 2025. And Kate, from a practitioner perspective, do you have any views when we discuss about ah the regulator or the proper regulator for the digital assets phase?
00:12:34
Speaker
I echo what Commissioner Mersinger said. We just need clear regulatory guidelines. We need to know what regulator regulates what. so we can advise our clients properly and there is a confusion in terms of this what is this product? Who regulates it? What are the regulations that apply to it?
00:12:53
Speaker
So in in ah in the context where we have two financial regulators that have jurisdiction here, um we need to know which one is the applicable regulator, which products are under the jurisdiction of each, and what are what is the appropriate regulatory regime um And we have seen clients, Alta, as you you mentioned before, there's there is a there are some that say CFTC, some that say SEC, but we have seen clients be supportive of a regime where the SEC has jurisdiction over securities and did ah derivatives referencing digital asset securities
00:13:31
Speaker
CFTC having jurisdiction over non-security digital assets and derivatives, or derivatives and then also giving the CFTC jurisdiction over over the spot market, um which would just be an extension of the of their current jurisdiction.
00:13:47
Speaker
anti-manipulation and fraud authority. Absolutely, and I fully agree with you. ah Commissioner Merzinger, we have seen some recent trend from the SEC, which I'm surprised that actually is happening or does happen even before the SEC chair is officially in. But do you have any do where do you think the CFTC will concentrate on the enforcement path for the next four years? Absolutely. And if you were to name one key priority, what would that be for ah the CFTC?
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think the the biggest key priority is fraud. And a lot of people like to say, well, crypto fraud. I always think that's an unfair characterization or label because a lot of times it's just fraud that has a crypto wrapper. Somebody says they're going to buy and sell cryptocurrency and just take people's money and and misappropriate it.
00:14:44
Speaker
ah So, so fraud is really where we're going to focus our enforcement. There's plenty of it out there. There's a lot um that we can really spend time going after. um Acting Chair FAM has put together some task force, one of them being kind of a complicated fraud task force.
00:15:05
Speaker
And they're really going to start looking into these um scams. You know, people call it pig butchering. I think that's kind of an unfair name. But, um you know, whether it's pig butchering or some of these romance, um you know, dating app site scams, um but really where there's significant customer harm.
00:15:24
Speaker
And is... it is you know It's vast and there's a lot to to you know go after. So that's where our enforcement team is really going to spend their time trying to shut some of these fraudulent um schemes down so that people aren't losing their money. And I think that is going to help us as we are trying to create a legitimate safe space for people to trade And crypto currencies and digital assets. It's, you know, once you have that safe space and people know where to go and, you know, there are certain regulations in place, our hope is that you will see less people drawn to some of these frauds.
00:16:06
Speaker
But until that time, we do need to shut some of this down. And that's where enforcement team is going to be focused. We're not going to see the failure to register crate cases.
00:16:17
Speaker
um You know, we're not going to see these ah attempts to really put some sort of regulatory um burden on a cryptocurrency exchange or or market ah where we can't but we haven't written rules or or you know offered some kind of regulatory guidance. So fraud's kind of the name of the game for our enforcement team going forward.
00:16:44
Speaker
Absolutely. And I think that that is definitely going to be primary. And and and even for us as legal practitioners, definitely that is the area that where we are very careful.
00:16:57
Speaker
And I dislike the term that usually fraud happens only in crypto, but definitely it's the center of attention. It should be the center of attention to hopefully... ah ah Eliminate is a big word, but yes, do not have those fraud projects, and especially what we have seen in the last four years or so in the crypto industry. And I think this is a perfect se segue into my next question.
00:17:23
Speaker
ah Commissioner Mersinger, how do you think about the CFTC's general exemptive authority, on the commodities exchange agency? x section 4c uh i and the reason i ask about this is because it has historically been used for some very wide ranging and highly tailored exemptions right especially because the subject permits the cftc to attach those conditions to any exemptions uh and do you think this is the a tool that CFTC can use to potentially fill some gaps until there is some legislation?
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. 4C exemption authority is is definitely a tool in our toolbox and something that helps hasn't been looked at as, as an option that I think will get a little more attention under the new administration, you know, where can we use that? Could we use that in places where, you know, I i like to use example of um ah perps where, you know, they've kind of been classified as a swap. So you can't have retail participation, but you know,
00:18:30
Speaker
Could we have a world where there you do allow retail participation and all that activity comes back on shore? on You know, so there are there are places where we could very well use exemptive authority to allow um activity that, you know, has really been kept out of out of the U.S. And there's no reason we shouldn't have those markets operating on shore.
00:18:56
Speaker
So I think it's one of the tools in our toolbox. It's certainly something we can look at in the meantime while we're waiting for legislation. I think another thing that we could do proactively is, you know, work hand in hand with the SEC and start a framework of how we evaluate tokens, you know.
00:19:14
Speaker
I always say our our enforcement teams figured out how they were going to define different um digital assets. Why couldn't we put that out publicly and give give industry some kind of guide in the meantime for how the agencies have traditionally looked at um the breakdown of what is a security and, you know, digital asset and what is a non-security digital asset. So there are tools that we can use in the interim while we are waiting for legislation.
00:19:46
Speaker
And, you know, I think we have the right players in place to do that. So I'm hopeful that we can start doing that. I've offered my help to, you know, ah to all parties involved. And, you know, I'd like to see us be very proactive in this space and 4C is a great it's a great place to look.
00:20:02
Speaker
um for that opportunity. And we really appreciate that, Commissioner Mersinger. ah Kate, any views on this or how do you think it can be approachable from, I mean, not on behalf of the CFTC, but curious to hear your views as a as a practitioner? Yeah, I think it's a powerful tool, and i think that legislation takes a long time.
00:20:27
Speaker
um So this is a tool that can be used in the meantime um to give some clarity to the market in this in this very exciting time where people want to move forward with projects and and get to work.
Challenges in DeFi and Customer Protection
00:20:41
Speaker
ah Commissioner Mersinger, we just mentioned previously the past, I mean, enforcement cases, especially we still have that bad taste from FTX, even though I dislike to correlate that to the digital assets phase. But ah what lessons has the CFTC learned from this past Yeah, I think the bottom line, and guess this is FTX, is this idea of protecting customer funds.
00:21:12
Speaker
yeah the bottom line and i guess this is more towards f ftx is this idea of protecting customer funds um That is something that's very important in our regulated markets. We know, you know, our exchanges know where customer funds are at all times. They are segregated.
00:21:30
Speaker
We have checks in place where, you know, even our um our oversight examiners can literally check and say, if they say this money is in the bank, our examiners can check and make sure that money is in the bank and how then,
00:21:44
Speaker
in a protected account. So that is one I think is is one of the biggest lessons that I think we we saw with FTX. And a great example of that is, you know, they had owned um a ah a clearinghouse called Ledger X. Ledger X really was an asset in this bankruptcy because was it was regulated by the CFTC. So we knew where the customer funds were at Ledger It was funded and and the funds were safe and they were protected because we had been examining them and we'd been overseeing them. So that's an area where I think regulator you kind of regulatory oversight will really help um crypto exchanges
00:22:31
Speaker
And the customers who want to operate is, you know, making sure customer funds are protected and segregated. You know, I think the other thing is you know, having some control fine um where, you know, kind of control over is.
00:22:50
Speaker
who the people are that are coming, you know, to access the account, who are the counterparties, you know, if if you have a counterparty to your trade, you know, knowing who those people are, kind of the the know your customer, anti-money laundering um sort of regulations.
00:23:06
Speaker
Again, those are going to be very important as we look at how to regulate the spot market. So, Those are kind of the big lessons, I think, that we took away from those cases. And they're important um parts of this conversation of how to properly regulate a digital asset spot market.
00:23:26
Speaker
Thank you, Commissioner. Kate, um as an advisor and counsel in this space, I'm sure that you have advised many decentralized finance, DeFi protocols as well.
00:23:39
Speaker
What role do you see for decentralized finance in regulated derivatives markets? And also, I'm curious to hear your thoughts. How do you think that the regulator should handle the typical approach of mandatory intermediation, which is always a big topic in our industry if it has oversights of networks, designs, express...
00:24:03
Speaker
expressly for the P2P transactions. um Yeah, I'll start with with you, Kate. Okay, great. So I think that DeFi does play a role or should play a role in regulated derivatives markets.
00:24:17
Speaker
The question though was is how to regulate them and who exactly to regulate. That's a tough question. um And I think the first question is defining what decentralized means. um does People seem to disagree on this, and some protocols do have a centralized operator and some don't.
00:24:37
Speaker
So I think coming up with a clear framework for what decentralized means will be helpful in terms of of coming up with a with a regulatory framework. And Where there is a centralized operator, ah centralized exchange style rules may make sense, taking into, of course, the account the the unique features of digital assets, but protocols that are truly discent decentralized, um who do you regulate? who Who do you impose the regulations on?
00:25:05
Speaker
um And that kind of exchange style rulemaking is not going to make sense. um And in terms of a framework, I... It's hard. I think it's a hard question.
00:25:17
Speaker
And industry stakeholders and policymakers are going to have to work together to come up with with a framework. Maybe one that makes sense is to regulate the the participants themselves, like dealers or major participants based on volumes.
00:25:31
Speaker
um So I think it it just needs a ah discussion and regulators need to be educated. Absolutely. And I think that that is exactly the part that we are struggling, to be honest, as an industry right now, as a legal industry. And my concern is especially the definition of decentralization. And as you know, Kate, we have FIT21, which I'm not a big fan, especially about how we divide in between the two regulators and having two regulators based on the that definition of decentralization. So I think would be super important for our industry to focus a lot on being on the same page when it comes to what we're looking for and and to give our regulators exactly that guidance and help that they need to help us back.
00:26:17
Speaker
ah Commissioner Mercinger, do you have any views? um My question. Yeah. So DeFi is tough because it really does come down to exactly what Kate said is how you define it. You know, what what does it mean to be decentralized? And is there a kind of level of decentralization that you know, doesn't, that it wouldn't make sense to have any regulation around.
00:26:43
Speaker
And it's a question that we have to ask. So, you know, i've I've been talking to a number of folks to Kate's point, there is a lot of education that we need in the government. And, you know, sometimes we're gonna have to be proactive. um It's great when industry comes in and talks to us, because it helps, but at the same time, we shouldn't be complacent. We need to go out and try to educate ourselves and learn more.
00:27:08
Speaker
And so just talking to people, you know, there's discussions around whether or not the the protocol, custody's assets, those sorts of questions, I think we have to take into account when we decide how will the regulatory framework, does it doesn't work for DeFi and, and,
00:27:26
Speaker
How can we make it work for DeFi? And how do we make sure we don't overregulate or create a situation where we are holding people accountable and and who shouldn't be held accountable? And so they just take their activity and their innovation offshore.
00:27:43
Speaker
So DeFi is a really tough place. um You know, I've had a number of dissents just because of the way our enforcement team was handling it. It is certainly not, the way we should address DeFi, and that has been what we've done is just really used enforcement against them.
00:28:00
Speaker
We need to come up with a way to define it, decide where regulation makes sense, decide if there's a certain level of decentralization where regulation doesn't make sense,
00:28:13
Speaker
And then, you know, figure out how to bring them, those who who want to be in the regulatory fold, how do we do that? How does it work? And to your point on like intermediation, those sorts of things, you know, that doesn't work in this space. So how do we make sure some of the, know,
00:28:30
Speaker
you know, some of the safeguards that we have at the CFTC that fall in kind of an intermediated ah market, how can we make sure those safeguards exist in a non-intermediated space, um whether it's DeFi or any ah any kind of market ah for digital assets? So there's a lot in front of us that we have to figure out and certainty, you know, providing clarity and certainty, to those in the markets and those who are creating these protocols and markets is so important. And ah then the worst case worst thing we could do would be overstep and run people offshore.
00:29:10
Speaker
And that is something that this administration is absolutely They absolutely are committed to bringing innovation back on our shores. And so we have to figure out how to tailor our approach in a way where we don't stifle innovation and and we don't overstep the path.
00:29:29
Speaker
and over-regulate here. ah Fully agree with you, Commissioner Mersinger, but I'm curious to hear from Kate. Now you're hearing that ah while we're still navigating, you know, this or or trying to have this clear rules to being developed, I'm curious to hear from your perspective, Kate, how do you deal with the with this when you are advising many, many projects? Like, do you Do you still see these projects sort of trying or waiting for this regulatory uncertainty or or moving offshore? Or I'm curious to hear from what you see on your day-to-day ah basis with your clients and how you advise them. I mean, of course, without sharing details, but curious to hear the approach from counsel in the digital asset space.
00:30:24
Speaker
Yep. So the short answer is what we tell our clients is the law is the law until it's changed. So we have to work within the existing framework that we have um for the time being.
00:30:35
Speaker
And where there's uncertainty or gray areas, we're going to work with our clients to take a thoughtful and practical approach and help our clients understand the risks. Um,
00:30:47
Speaker
we've and been encouraging our clients to speak up now, be part of building the law, um, get in the room with the CFTC and the SEC. This is, this is the turning point, um, of digital asset regulation. And like we said before, the more education and, um,
00:31:04
Speaker
The more the regulators know, the better the regulatory framework will be. And then in terms of what we're seeing from clients, we've seen some clients say take a wait-and-see approach and come to us, and they want to know what's going on so they can they can start brainstorming.
00:31:20
Speaker
But we've also had an uptick in clients coming forward and telling us they want to move forward and they want to move quickly so they don't get left behind. Yeah. And we we talked about this before. There is a lot of positivity about the current administration's public stance, um but the legislative process is slow.
00:31:40
Speaker
And if clients um and market participants take a wait and see approach, it it it may may be too long too late. um So I think there's there's lots of optimism and and clients moving ahead.
00:31:56
Speaker
that's That's great news. And I am very optimistic, especially from what I'm seeing from both from both regulators, CFTC and SEC, especially with the crypto task force. And actually, I put my request with a couple of my friend attorneys to have an appointment with the commissioner,
00:32:16
Speaker
Hester Peirce, but ah Commissioner Merzinger, for those projects and crypto companies still navigating and that are going to navigate the this evolving regulatory clarity here in United States, hopefully until we have a bill, what advice would you give to these digital asset projects?
Engagement with Regulators and Policy Shaping
00:32:41
Speaker
I think the the best advice I have is to stay engaged if you're already engaged. Get engaged if you're not. um you know Commissioner Peirce has a great ah kind of setup for public engagement with her task force.
00:32:59
Speaker
Go in and talk to them. Explain what you do And the other thing I've kind of said to you, to people I've met with is come to us with ideas. ah We don't have all the ideas in the world. In fact, you know, sometimes we might be looking at doing things, you know, the traditional way when there's a better way to to to do things. And so if you have ideas for us, if you have suggestions for ways that,
00:33:29
Speaker
you know You could operate, um whether it's onshore provide better experience for your customers or you know questions around how to look at different assets or how to handle DeFi. Come to us with those ideas because we're going to be taking all that in and processing it and trying to use it to do what we can to really try to start providing some clarity and opening the doors for this industry while we wait for ah legislation. As Kate said, legislation does take a long time.
00:34:05
Speaker
I know that gets frustrating for people. I actually have always thought that's a good thing because if Congress could pass laws really fast, I would be worried that they would passed way too many laws So it's okay that it's a slow process. But in the meantime, you know, are there ways that we can provide relief or opportunities that, i you know, maybe it would be better if there was legislation, but in the interim, know, you know, we can offer some sort of staff guidance exemptive authority or something around ah around the edges that helps aye industry innovate and and bring, you know, bring this activity back in the U.S. So I think just stay engaged, stay engaged with agencies, stay engaged with the White House, stay engaged with Congress. You know, don't don't kind of fall back now that everything is very positive. It would be a mistake to kind of
00:35:03
Speaker
Keep, you know, take your foot off the gas now. Keep going full force because we we need to get to the end where people know how to ah bring these products to market, how to, you know, allow people customers to access these markets and what to expect when the regulators are looking into their activities. So that's kind of my best advice is you know, just stay proactive, stay engaged, and be a resource as we try to navigate this landscape.
00:35:40
Speaker
And that is the best advice and I think is the most positive advice as well for all our listeners ah who are going to listen to this podcast.
00:35:51
Speaker
I think is the best advice, especially for newer projects trying to navigate the regulatory environment here in the United States. And I fully agree with you. Commissioner Mersinger. Definitely now that we're seeing all this positive news, it's not the time to slack back and think that things are going to fall ah easily on our table, but we need to be engaged. We need to be engaged with both regulators.
00:36:17
Speaker
And I truly appreciate your guidance. I truly appreciate your support in the space. And I'll be the biggest fan of yours as ah our CFTC Commissioner.
00:36:29
Speaker
Thank you so much, both Kate and Leslie and Commissioner Mersinger for being on this podcast today. appreciated both your feedback.
00:36:41
Speaker
We hope you enjoyed our Hootenanny. Thank you for listening.
Conclusion and Further Resources
00:36:44
Speaker
For more hootful and hype-free resources, visit owlexplains.com. There, you will find articles, quizzes, practical explainers, suggested reading materials, and lots more.
00:36:56
Speaker
Also, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to continue wising up on blockchain and Web3. That's all for now on Owl Explains. Until next time.