Jacob Handler

Visited DC w/ 6 of our outstanding @Dorm_DAO students, hailing from @CUBlockchain, @txblockchain, @USTABlockchain & @MichBlockchain Each student, strategizing their own career in crypto, but facing much of the same regulatory uncertainty that has influenced the way all founders have built in our space for the past 10 years. The trip allowed our students to ask real questions of the folks shaping the future. to chat intimately with policy advocates, lawmakers and regulators on the steady crypto reg progress being made in Washington. A few notes on our visits crisscrossing DC: Our first stop was @BlockchainAssn & @SolanaInstitute. @DanSpuller, @SummerMersinger and the BA team have dedicated much of their careers to advocating for the collective industry. It's clear they understand the responsibility that comes w/ being crypto's unified voice in DC. they are working hard - among a wide array of competing priorities - to ensure all of crypto can win under this government regime. it's a tall task, but simply meeting with their team, it's clear how locked in they are on the opportunity. We heard from @thecolinmclaren & @RachelGreenHorn, who are committed to educating policy makers on the core promises of blockchain-based technology, within the Solana eco, and the larger space. Also got a chance to swing by the @HyperliquidPC's office, tucked away inside the BA's floor. a small but mighty team, led by @jchervinsky, quietly plotting a path to bringing Hyperliquid's powerful engine to US investors. pretty cool to see in action. Next was the @SECGov's Crypto Task Force, where our students presented to @HesterPeirce's staff on three important topics: 1. stablecoins + yield dynamics 2. on-chain credit + mortgage markets 3. token networks as capital formation tools Special shoutout to @overminn and @JuliasOrbit86 for courageously walking SEC staff through the "OpenAI token" scenario - a fairly radical idea w/ real implications. (agenda here: sec.gov/files/ctf-memo-colla…) One thing i'll say about the task force: @HesterPeirce and Taylor Lindman have assembled an excellent staff that not only deeply understands the intricacies of our industry's core products & services, but are now honing in on the exact sequence of levers to give the industry's capital markets the clarity we've all been asking for. After lunch, we made a quick stop at Chairwoman @RepLisaMcClain's house leadership office - the "command center" of the @HouseGOP. among (quite literally) a million different agenda goals, it was notable to hear the Chairwoman's staff articulate a real sense of urgency around the passage of CLARITY - not a given after months of brutal senate deadlock. Our last stop was the @CFTC, where we met with staff from the newly formed Innovation Task Force, led by @passalacqua_mj. we engaged in a wide ranging discussion, covering compute markets, token mechanics, CFTC's federal jurisdiction, cooperation w/ international counterparts and AI's potential job displacement. There was something astonishing about regulators willing to explore these emerging topics in real time, rather than just reacting to them after the fact. I left w/ the sense that many of these conversations will materialize in action much earlier than most folks realize. All-in-all, what stood out was not any single meeting, but a broad-based push - by crypto-native experts - to make the most of the opportunity set in front of us. And optimism that we are on the precipice of real progress in the convergence of policy, capital markets and distributed systems. Bullish @MichaelSelig/@passalacqua_mj's team, Bullish @RepLisaMcClain team, Bullish @HesterPeirce's team, Bullish @SummerMersinger/@DanSpuller's team & bullish AI, Crypto and America. 🇺🇸