let's be honest crypto sentiment is in the toilet right now many investors are watching their portfolios bleed and thinking well that's it we got a pro crypto US president this is as good as it's going to get it's a down only from here but what if we told you that the good times may still be ahead of us previously hostile us regulatory agencies are flipping crypto-friendly while progress may be slower than some expected it is in fact been made so if you're feeling extreme fear about crypto then this is a video that may just change
your mind my name is Nick stay tuned now if you've been in crypto for more than 5 minutes you'll know the industry has an image problem to many crypto is just a digital Wild West filled with some of the worst low lives in existence and to be blunt it's easy to see why there's been no shortage of scams fraud and Shady conduct over the years the thing is this isn't the fault of the technology or even the industry but rather a handful of Bad actors the lack of clear rules and guidelines has made it all
too easy for these few wrongin to spoil things for the rest of us and it's arguably been this Innovative Tech's biggest hurdle to mainstream adoption thankfully the solution to this problem is simple crypto regulations the catch is that these regulations need to be balanced too much regulation could stifle Innovation or push crypto activity underground too little regulation and there will be too many loopholes for Bad actors to abuse and we'd be no better off luckily these regulations are not only coming but it looks like they could well be balanced and fair thus allowing the crypto
industry to thrive and that's because president Donald Trump has nominated a string of pro crypto individuals for key positions that will influence crypto regulations in the US giving the industry the rails it needs for True mainstream adoption let's start with the regulator that's been the biggest thorn in our side the SEC but before we do that hit that like button if you haven't done so already and don't forget to subscribe to the channel to make sure you don't miss our next video for those unfamiliar the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC regulates Securities which include
assets like stocks and bonds the SEC views the vast majority of cryptocurrencies as Securities and this is because of the hoe test which uses four criteria to determine whether a transaction constitutes a Securities offering these four criteria are as follows an investment of money has been made the investment is in a common Enterprise there's an expectation of profit and that expectation of profit is derived from the efforts of others while all crypto projects meet the first three criteria many don't meet the fourth and that's because decentralization means there's no common Enterprise there's no clear third
party you can point to that's driving an expectation of profit more importantly many crypto projects start off as being centralized but become more decentralized over time unfortunately this hasn't stopped the SEC labeling many cryptos as unregistered Securities and issuing enforcement actions against them the agency has also gone after major crypto exchanges like binance Kraken and coinbase which it has accused of offering unregistered Securities fortunately these lawsuits are being rolled back as we speak but who was behind this Witch Hunt in the first place of course it was former SEC chairman Gary Gensler and to a
large extent former director of enforcement goober Greywell under Gary's leadership the SEC opted for regul by enforcement causing major setbacks for crypto especially since the guidelines for compliance were never clarified that's why during the election campaign president Trump declared twice that he'd fire Gary Gensler on day one of his presidency but Gary resigned before that happened and this was something to celebrate but it was also a pivotal moment for the SEC and that's because stepping in is acting SEC chair Mark UA who will will hold the position until a permanent chair is appointed notably Mark
has been critical of the sec's enforcement strategies his priority is creating something that crypto has been desperate for Clear Fair regulation more importantly Mark is pro crypto and even established the first ever crypto task force which will be led by Hester Pierce for those unaware Hester is another sec commissioner and a strong advocate for crypto Innovation and clear regulation a trait that's earned her the nickname crypto mom cute anyways her crypto task force will prioritize moving away from regulation by enforcement and towards creating more productive and transparent regulations that Foster crypto Innovation now Trump's nominee
for the sec's permanent chair is Paul Atkins although at the time of Shootin he hasn't been officially confirmed the reason this is taking longer than expected is simple there's a cue basically there are several cabinet members ahead of Paul in the queue to have their nominations confirmed and it's not entirely clear when it will be his turn to put things into perspective Gary Gensler was nominated in February 2021 but wasn't confirmed until April 2021 in any case Paul is proc crypto advocating for free market principles and Innovation he previously served as SEC commissioner between 2002
and 2008 where he focused on enhancing compliance in the financial services industry what's crazy is how much the SEC has shifted since Gary's departure besides dismissing lawsuits against exchanges it has approved the first ever yield bearing stable coin security and acknowledged grayscales ETF applications for xrp Doge and Ada it even declared that Meme coins aren't Securities and has begun engaging with crypto firms to discuss regulations the SEC has also revoked the controversial Sab 121 rule which basically prevented Banks from holding crypto so then what was formerly the crypto industry's biggest enemy has changed its tune
and in a big way but this could actually end up being one great big nothing burger and that's because shortly after Trump's election in November last year his team began considering handing crypto oversight from the SEC to the cftc hey man hey what do you do for living me I'm a uh I'm a crypto YouTuber yeah yeah it's pretty pretty fun job [Music] actually see you what about you what do you do for a living oh me man I check the coin Bureau deals page it's got sign up bonuses of up to $100,000 and trading
fee discounts but I mean huge trading fee discounts and exclusive alquin Alpha in their subscription service check it [Music] out for those unaware the commodity Futures Trading commission or cftc regulates well Futures and commodities the cftc has long been considered to be less anti-crypto than the SEC although it had pushed back on the idea in the past insisting that it wouldn't hesitate to enforce legal action if needed but what does the cftc actually do well when it comes to crypto the cftc regulates digital assets that are classified as Commodities primarily Bitcoin and ethereum which it
considers Commodities under its jurisdiction the cftc is often seen as the smaller player in crypto regulation although its role has been expanding this is thanks to bipartisan efforts being passed through Congress that aim to give the cftc more Authority anyway the former chair of the cftc is Roston Benham Roston was similar to in the sense that he wanted more regulation without Clarity per se specifically he advocated for the cfdc to have more authority over crypto regulation and viewed defi as within the cftc's perview according to Roston it doesn't matter if a protocol is managed by
a DA saying it's about what consumers are exposed to and who set up or coded the project Roston also believed that the hoe test used by the SEC is the best best tool to analyze the crypto Market he also argues that the cftc's responsibility is to facilitate disclosures information flow and availability and knowledge about the risk of loss similar to Gary Roston stepped down as chair on Trump's inauguration day and was succeeded by Carolyn fam who was unanimously elected as acting chair Caroline has served as cftc commissioner since 2022 and has also worked in its
enforcement divisions as she's also held previous roles at the SEC and the OCC that's quite a resume over there while serving as commissioner Caroline fostered collaborations across the financial ecosystem her priority was embracing the advances of financial technology while ensuring that the US remained a Global Financial leader in other words a moving fast but not breaking things Caroline has also LED multiple cftc initiatives that modernize Market structures these include creating a dedicated digital asset subcommittee the first ever us digital asset taxomony a forum for CEOs of leading industry firms to discuss a new initiative the
digital assets markets pilot program this initiative explores the potential of tokenized real world assets to enhance market efficiency and improve risk management notable participants include Circle coinbase Ripple and moonay among others anywh who for the permanent position Trump has nominated Brian quentes for the CFT C chair although again he hasn't yet been confirmed Brian served as cftc commissioner between 2017 and 2021 having been nominated by both Obama and Trump and unanimously approved by the Senate so it seems Brian's a well-respected guy across the political Spectrum while formerly serving as a commissioner Brian led the technology
advisory committee are spearheading discussions on the potential of blockchain and other emerging Technologies to ensure regulations evolve alongside them since leaving the cftc Brian has been working at and recent Horowitz aka a16z the largest crypto VC firm by some metrix and this is easily the most significant thing about him he literally works at a crypto VC firm that invests primarily in altcoins it should come as no surprise then that Brian is a vocal advocate for Clear risk calibrated rules and is again regulation by enforcement instead he wants proactive policies that Foster crypto's institutional adoption while
maintaining Market Integrity similar to the SEC the cftc has also made several bullish steps since Trump took office it announced an end to regulation by enforcement and announced a Back to Basics Roundtable discussions on Market structure meanwhile coinbase launched cftc backed Soul future contracts for the first time and a former cftc lawyer said the agency should take the lead on mcoin regulations oh and when Brian was nominated by Trump he announced it on farcaster a web3 social media platform respect now another regulator that's becoming more Pro crypto is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or FDIC
which for years has maintained a highly cautious and restrictive stance towards the industry for those unaware the FDIC is an independent US government agency that provides insurance for depositors using commercial and Savings Banks the FDIC is Infamous for issuing PA's letters to various institutions basically telling them to suspend crypto related services and this discouraged Banks from engaging with crypto effectively restricting a broad range of crypto projects from accessing banking services making it difficult for them to continue doing business in the US this move has been dubbed operation choke . 2.0 whereby crypto projects are blocked
from accessing Banks and other Financial Services effectively choking them out of the business and you can learn more about chokepoint 2.0 by checking out our video right over here it went both ways too by the way any banks that requested to engage with crypto were consistently refused with the FDIC repeatedly requesting unnecessary excess of information then there'd be long periods of radio silence causing delays so severe that it made engagement with crypto more hassle than it was worth the fdic's regulatory attitude stemmed from its former chair Martin grunberg who quickly resigned after Trump's November Victory
although this was apparently due to a string of bullying discrimination and harassment reports within the FDIC under his watch make of that what you will put simply Martin he hates crypto in fact when he stepped down Bitcoin magazine published this rather damning good riddance article according to them Gary gansler may have been the most hated man in crypto but Martin is a close second taking over from Martin is Travis Hill who will serve as acting chairman of the FDIC at the time of shooting Trump has yet to nominate a permanent replacement but if we could
pick one for him we'd say stick with Travis and that's because Travis has steered the FDIC into a complete U-turn uh he's already outlined that the FDIC will be embracing Financial Innovation rather than trying to stifle it Travis wants the FDIC to facilitate a robust banking system that makes use of blockchain technology and its ability to reshape the financial landscape Travis is a big fan of defi especially tokenized real world assets like you guys watching at home Travis believes that this technology will improve payment systems and Global transactions as such Travis aims for the FDIC
to reshape the way it regulates crypto in order to allow Innovation to continue while also maintaining the security of the banking sector this involves full transparency which Travis is doing the best to provide case in point the FDIC recently released a whopping 790 pages of crypto related letters to the general public these showed that chokepoint 2.0 wasn't just a conspiracy theory but was a categorically genuine targeted move and this comes after Trump signed an executive order excluding the FDIC and the Federal Reserve from crypto working groups in order to protect the industry from being debanked
again after sharing those 790 Pages Travis stated that quote the FDIC looks forward to engaging with the president's working group on digital asset markets well played sir now this relates to another regulatory agency and that's the office of the controller of the currency or the OCC the federal agency that oversees National Banks to clarify a National Bank isn't the same as a central bank basically it's a Commercial Bank operating in the US that the OCC regulates supervises and Charters the four largest National Banks are JP Morgan Chase Bank of America Wells Fargo and cityrp the
OCC is primarily funded by these Banks mainly through fees and what's crazy is that the OCC has the power to deny applications for new Bank branches it can remove Bank directors and can take supervisory actions against the banks themselves now the OCC is slightly different from other Regulators in that it has been Pro crypto for years or at least it was between 2020 and 2021 the OCC issued a series of inter cative letters to Banks saying that engaging with crypto was not only allowed but it was actively encouraged I mean how bullish is that right
however this all changed in November 2021 when leadership of the OCC was handed over to Michael sue a self-described crypto skeptic Michael's OCC then issued another interpretive letter which imposed a new requirement for banks to gain approval from the o CC before engaging with crypto and a surprise surprise this rule didn't apply to any other industry and what's worse is that the approval criteria were never made clear meaning Banks were basically forced to stop in their tracks and as you'll have guessed this was an effort to choke crypto companies out of accessing banking services sound
familiar thankfully Michael is out and Rodney Hood is now the acting controller of currency head crypto-friendly former chairman of the US Credit Union Administration Rodney has emphasized that crypto is essential for credit unions to stay competitive with other financial service providers for the permanent controller role Trump has nominated Jonathan Gold Jonathan is an expert in banking oversight fintech policy and risk management he was previously the senior Deputy controller and chief counsel where he led the occ's legal division through major regulatory re forms so this should be second nature to him Jonathan is also Pro crypto
and has even worked in the industry specifically he is the former Chief legal officer of the blockchain infrastructure firm bit Fury and with the OCC he's driven key advancements in fintech set clear policies on stable coin reserves and overseen crypto custody Services Jonathan also advocates for financial regulations to be refined to keep up with the real world where the technology and the risks are ever evolving he believes this approach maintains banking stability and emphasizes stress testing transparency and strong supervision so then as you can see the regulatory landscape is already shaping up to be incredibly
crypto-friendly and this begs the question of what all this means for the crypto Market first and foremost it's far too early to tune out while charts May look bearish in the short term the long-term Outlook remains undeniably bullish and that's simply because changes at these Regulatory Agencies will result in structural changes to the crypto Market from the top to the bottom at the top we have the likes of the FDIC and OCC their change in attitude towards crypto will make it easier for both crypto projects and crypto companies to operate and also to receive financing
without fear of their accounts getting Frozen based on some vague rule or at the bottom we have the SEC and the cftc making it clear which cryptos are compliant with regulations and which ones are not and this will make it easier for exchanges to list these cryptos and that's true for both traditional exchanges and crypto exchanges traditional exchanges will be able to list more altcoin Futures and spot altcoin ETFs and crypto exchanges will be able to list more altcoins the result is that it will be easier for investors of all kinds to invest in crypto
especially in altcoins it's not just investment either in case you haven't noticed most of these incoming Pro crypto Regulators are fans of the technology specifically things like Defi and tokenized real world assets this foreshadows clearer regulations around not just buying and selling cryptos but also actively using them think things like staking yield farming and airdrops stuff which currently has next to no regulatory Clarity in the US the combination of clearer regulations around crypto investment and usage could result in an explosion of innovation a new wave of crypto projects and protocols that can say leverage tradire
rails in the back end or integrate with existing web 2 products and platforms and this foreshadows an entirely new category of crypto project that could emerge in the coming years a one that has closer ties to established institutions rather than to the crypto industry it's going to be interesting to see whether the crypto natives win the adoption battle against these incumbents when they're finally put on the same playing field but you can rest assured that we'll be watching very closely okay if you enjoyed this video then be sure to watch our latest one right over
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