The Trish Regan Show - Will Congress Finally Legitimize Cryptos?

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

In this exclusive interview with Rep. Bill Huizenga, we break down whether Congress is finally ready to legitimize cryptocurrency—or if more delays are ahead. This is a CLIP from the LIVE Trish Regan show episode 138 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the finance of the future, if you would. But we need some framework around it. We need some laws around it. We need some opportunity around it. And that's what the Clarity Act is trying to do. They're trying to get this one through the house this week. So this is all happening in real time. And I think as we look at the markets reacting to G7,

and we look at the opportunity right now, if I can pull up my cryptos for you. I mean, there has been such a surge. Has there not, what don't we tell you? To get into around 76 research, I think we were telling you, it was worth taking a good hard look at Bitcoin back when it was around 55,000. And of course, now as I look at it today, up another 3% at $108,860. Rob was saying recently at 76 research that his concern was a lot of people were not going to actually get in on this,

in part because it is scary, right? And it's hard to understand, and I get that. And part of that is because we haven't had enough regular. around the industry, but good regulation. I don't mean regulation that's going to actually curtail it, but allow it to thrive. And so that's partly what they're trying to figure out right now. They're with the Clarity Act, the Clarity Act for Crypto. So keep an eye on that one, guys. I think that this has the opportunity to really advance us in new ways within the crypto space. And there's a lot of really exciting blockchains out there. I mean, personally, full disclosure, I have

invested in Bitcoin. I've invested in something called Bittenzor, which is a crypto called Tao. It's a play on AI technology, as well as Solana. These are all blockchains. In Ethereum, don't let me forget Ethereum. These are blockchains that I find really compelling and really interesting. And I want to make sure, right, for the sake of the future that there is a framework around this so that we can really, really move forward because I think we're about to. I sat down recently with Representative Hizenga, Bill Hizenga, and we talked about this. He's on the House Financial Services Committee. And like me, he's kind of a Bitcoin dork. He's been following it for a while. And we were getting into this. I want to show you with you this interview. Where is Bitcoin

heading? You don't have to give me a price level, but just sort of from a regulation standpoint. Do you see it being embraced? They're in D.C. now. It's the future. And I have some colleagues on the other side of the aisle that are our digital deniers, right? They just can't imagine a world that is going to have digital anything, you know, whether it is a crypto asset or whether it's a distributive ledger use for information. And that's the reality of where we're going on this. And, you know, look, this was something that I was, I too was introduced to this very early on. I've been on the Financial Services Committee for now 15 years. I'm in my eighth term.

and I was on the subcommittee, the capital market subcommittee, and in my third term became a subcommittee chair. And so I started having these meetings very early on. And what I tell people is, look, you have to have this view with that, just as we articulated by Vice President Vance, I think, you know, the crypto assets are a store of value. That's the reality of it. Is it going to supplant the U.S. dollar?

No, I don't believe it will. In fact, I think with our stable coin, bill that now the Senate's working on a genius act version of that what it does it's going to help us it's because you're going to need the stable coins you're going to need to buy u.s. treasuries in order to have some stability in your cryptos yes and that makes it worldwide and it's going to solidify uh the standing of the u.s dollar and and that it's that the primary currency of the world and and i think that is going to do nothing but help now uh what's what's the senate going to do with it. You know, Leader Thune is opened up. All of these, one big beautiful bill, as well as my

understanding with Genius Act, to amendments. And that's going to be tough. There may be some poison pills that either get, certainly get introduced, if not inserted into it. That's going to make it much more difficult. I understand. What do you mean? Well, I mean, I know poison pills in terms of like an M&A deal, but what do you mean? Poison pills. There's maybe non-germane, or non directly tied to issues that get inserted into it. The simple fact is we have to get something. Look, the president wants this, the administration wants this, the securities exchange commission had wants this,

the CFTC head wants this, the House wants this. Really? I mean, because I feel like the financial, you know, James was on with my former colleague Maria Borda Romo this week, and he's like, we need missiles, we don't necessarily need Bitcoin. I mean, I think Bitcoin actually represents, dare I say a little bit of a challenge or a little bit of a threat to some of the big financial institutions because I can totally see a day.

A kid you not. And maybe Texas Stock Exchange will be the one to take this over because they're embracing a lot of technology. But, you know, where you have a day where I don't like meme coins, that's not my deal. I think they're like stickers. It's like kids trading stickers, right? But if meme coins, they represent a technology, right? So if one day that's actually an equity price and an equity ticker, and that's what's being traded on these various exchanges.

So the exchange is being backed by certain technologies, whether it be Ethereum or Solana, all of this stuff, which is super interesting, enabling all these transactions to happen more quickly without all the lawyers. I mean, think about all the derivatives trading you could do. I'm going to totally walk out. I know everybody's like, what are you talking about, Trish? But it's seriously cool. And I think it's the future. It is. Absolutely.

It's the future. We need as little friction in those transactions as possible. But you make the distinction rightly so. I'm talking about the policymakers and the regulators. Look, we had Gary Gensler at the SEC who, when he was at the CFTC, viewed everything that was crypto as a commodity. Then he magically changed his viewpoint that when he was head of the SEC that everything is a, is a... An equity? Sorry, sorry.

So you can trade like, yeah, the ETS. Got it. And because, look, policymakers want to view it sort of as fish or fowl, right? Turns out this is kind of a platypus. It's got a lot of characteristics of various things, and it kind of depends on how it's applied. Well, that's what we're attempting to do now is to make sure that with a stable coin act or genius act, something that we're putting out some rules of the road. And my point was is you've got a president who wants. this and has made a decision on this. Last administration, they didn't know which way it was up.

I don't think they knew what it was. I mean, they didn't know what anything was, right? I mean, Elizabeth Warren knows, I guess, but, you know, she's terrified of it. Yeah, I was just going to say, they got people like Elizabeth Warren who are talking it down and aren't willing or able to embrace this. And you've got a president now who absolutely is embracing it. You've got his regulators, his, his most trusted advisors who embrace it as well. People, you know, my mom was like, well, I don't understand. I don't know what it is. And I said to her before the election, but you need to be in it.

Like, you just need to. You need some allocation. You don't necessarily understand everything about invidia either, but there's a reason you're in it. And if you're not getting exposure to it, you know, you're going to be at a disadvantage. Yeah. Yeah. And again, it's a store of value.

At this point, it might become more if we get our act together. Yeah. And we're going to have to start leading on this and not just reacting to it. And that's been the difficulties because we've seen other locations, other countries, get much more aggressive. And frankly, we want to have that pace by us here in the U.S. Not be reactive to others. You bet.

You bet. Now, you're talking my language. So it's a little bit of the interview. We have more coming your way. But anyway, I think, you know, as I look at everything, that's happened right over the weekend. It's been a tough weekend. I get it. Look at what's been going on in terms of the protests. Look at what happened in Minnesota. Just heartbreaking stuff, heartbreaking stuff. Obviously on the international front, just tragic, awful stuff. And yet,

you know what? We're persevering, guys. We're moving forward because I think the reality is this. There are good times ahead. And I say this with a true conviction for the optimism that's like, I believe in this. I believe in the policy that's being put forth. And I think this is beneficial for our country. And you know, we have to do all this. There's some, you know, like for whatever reason, and I can't understand, I can't explain it. And, you know, other than to say maybe they had a political motivation for allowing 20-some of a million people to come in and not keeping track of who was here. Why did they do that? I don't know. But you know what? A lot of people were asleep at the switch. A lot of people were refusing to take responsibility for this.

A lot of people allowed for all of this to happen. And now the chickens are coming home to roost, right? And so now Donald Trump is saying, I got to go in there. I got to actually take this over and clean this up.