On cryptocurrency, stablecoins, and regulation

For the past decade, the crypto community has asked the government to outline the rules of the road. Instead they’ve gotten opaque regulations and asymmetric enforcement. Treating an industry with the power to reshape the global financial system with such disregard held America back—especially as other countries, like China, are full steam ahead. 

The impulse to overregulate nascent, emerging technologies has caused slower progress, less societal benefit, and more red tape. We see this time and again in tech, especially when it comes to cryptocurrency. 

A blanket prohibition on crypto ignores the enormous potential of blockchain to reshape payments, expand financial access, and build new forms of digital property. Instead of aiming at zero crypto, regulation should aim to foster what’s promising and good. We need guardrails that clearly define what’s allowed—whether it’s dollar‑pegged stablecoins, tokenized securities, or on‑chain identity credentials—and robust enforcement against the bad apples. 

When startups know the rules of the game up front, they can innovate without fear that tomorrow’s political winds will grind them to a halt. And when regulators know their mandate is to steer—not crush—they’re likelier to partner with technologists rather than position against them.

Stablecoins, and legislation like GENIUS, are the smart place to begin. By developing a cryptoasset pegged to the US Dollar—and backed with Treasury Bills or Fiat USD—America can offer people in emerging markets an easy way to transact in USD if local currencies falter. Remittance fees drop, small businesses onboard payments cheaply, and the U.S. dollar’s reserve status is reinforced rather than eroded by offshore “dark” alternatives. If the Genius Act becomes law, it will establish clear charters for issuers, capital requirements, and consumer‑protection standards. It should be an important reference point of how we treat tech regulation going forward.

Beyond stablecoins lies a broader universe of tokenized assets: fractional real estate ownership, decentralized art markets, even self‑sovereign digital IDs. These applications already exist in pilot form around the world—from state‑chartered stablecoin programs in Texas to Nigeria’s CBDC experiments in rural banking. Each success story shows that when governments provide clarity instead of uncertainty, entrepreneurs can turn blockchain’s promise into real‑world impact.

At its heart, crypto regulation will do well to follow the Silicon Valley playbook of “ask for forgiveness, not permission.” Let pioneers build, test, fail, and iterate, then codify the lessons learned into coherent rules. That mindset turns missteps into guideposts (rather than roadblocks) and keeps the focus on steering toward the good rather than pulverizing the unknown. If we get this right, digital assets won’t just survive but help us reimagine money, ownership, and identity for decades to come.

We discuss all this and more in the full episode today: https://link.chtbl.com/QMQWKmVx

YouTube: https://youtu.be/cjCzrzRFoIE

Transcript: https://www.possible.fm/podcasts/riffs027/

You can subscribe to catch more episodes of Possible here: https://www.possible.fm/