00:00senator justice thank you mr chairman ranking member thank all you guys for being here
00:08now from my side you know i speak really plainly okay i would say just this
00:18for god's sakes of living do we not have enough smarts in the room to figure this out
00:24i mean when it really boils right down to it do we not have the smarts in the room to figure it out
00:32and i really believe we do i really believe hands down too that the potential
00:38the upside potential is off the chart and almost every country on on the entire globe is scrambling
00:46like crazy to get a piece of the puzzle you know that's all there is to it so why in the world are
00:55we so afraid of the dark why in the world are we so afraid of something that has the potential beyond
01:04belief and do we not just figure it out now let me just tell you just this just two or three things
01:13today bitcoin is trading in its own little hemisphere you know and it's trading at 117 000.
01:2345 days ago at the summit in las vegas it was trading at 110 000. for all practical purposes to make it
01:31real easy seven percent in 45 days now lots and lots and lots of folks whether we want them to or they or
01:41or we don't want them to lots of folks are saying i want in now with all that being said what we need to
01:50do is we need to have a framework that allows innovation period do we not but great big b-u-t
02:02with jim justice saying great big
02:04we've got to have an enforcement arm that protects the consumer without any question we've got to
02:14protect toby and edith now i always call toby and edith the voters but toby and edith want in but they
02:23don't have any idea how to understand this and you know what they do they they ask us to protect them
02:32that's what they do they don't ask us to do this to and i say it i've said this a bunch of times
02:40but in my world i can remember my dad saying just count the egg sucking cows
02:46you don't need to count the legs and divide by four because we're moving their legs all the time
02:51and you can't ever ever figure out how many cows are in the field
02:57now come on we're really smart and we're a country that ought to be leading the way in every way
03:06what are we doing why are we so scared of the dark why are we so so committed to counting the legs
03:15and dividing by four listen we passed genius it's good now we have to some way acknowledge legitimacy
03:28market structure we have to have regulation regulated clarity we have to have clarity we have got to
03:37protect toby and edith all the time hundred percent we've got to have real live enforcement
03:46that absolutely eliminates your bad actors
03:51you're really smart people super smart people you've got some really smart people here on this
03:57committee maybe not me but you've got some really smart people i am here to tell you
04:04we need to move and move now now we're going to sit around and twiddle our thumbs and a lot of
04:10people are going to have a leg up on us like we can't imagine that's not doing toby and edith right
04:18toby and edith want to play the game they want to be involved they want to be the next innovation
04:28they ask us one simple thing protect them so i'm almost out of time you got to go real fast
04:3410 seconds a piece there they tell me how can we pull it off how can we pull the innovation off
04:41how can we protect them real simple
04:46i believe that when the us puts its mind to something that we can accomplish great things
04:51and i think like you said senator we do need a comprehensive legislative framework to allow for
04:55responsible innovation a principles-based approach while best protecting consumers and i think now
04:59is the time to do so senator senator i think number one just uh we have great capital markets and
05:05markets and derivatives markets start with that as a foundation and then we can figure it out
05:11i would say keep a couple principles in mind do no harm to the existing markets keep it relatively
05:17simple in the legislation rev and rely on the expertise of our regulators they do have expertise
05:23and we should draw on it and not fight the last war when they weren't doing enough perhaps to
05:29customize rules thank you use the time-tested structure that's already been in place and hasn't
05:36been in and has been in place for years the cfdc regulates commodities the sec regulates securities
05:43use that structure congress gives some definitional support to what is the security what is the commodity
05:50and you go from there it has worked in the past it is simple it will work again there are sros
05:57companies underneath that that support the sec and the cfdc in their work thank you senator your
06:04description of the volatility of bitcoin reminded me of other commodities like oil gold production
06:11crops that farmers that talk to you all the time are dealing with the cfdc is a natural home for these
06:17types of commodities that are dealing with volatility the fact that they can trade the derivatives to help to
06:22hedge that volatility my advice to this committee is to give exclusive jurisdiction over digital
06:27commodities to the to this agency and to give digital securities to the sec and to give clear
06:35lines of jurisdiction to both agencies well thank all of you and thank you mr chairman because you've
06:41led the charge and everything and i'm right with you sir
Comments