CoinDesk Podcast Network

CoinDesk's The Policy Protocol hosts Rebecca Rettig and Renato Mariotti open on a busy policy week from the UK's FCA opening its crypto firm authorization process to the SEC's new staff FAQ on crypto asset classification, and Robinhood's launch of AI agents that trade for retail customers.

They then sit down with former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, who argues the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate because of election-year politics rather than substance and could still get done in the post-midterm lame duck, and weighs in on who should be accountable when an AI trading agent goes wrong and on the Supreme Court fight over sports prediction markets.

Plus, Rebecca and Renato debrief on the SEC's shrinking commissioner ranks and name departing Commissioner Hester Peirce as their Person of the Week.

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This episode is brought to you by Grayscale, the world's largest digital asset-focused investment platform. Grayscale's mission is to make digital asset investing simple and open to every investor. Learn more at grayscale.com.

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Digital markets move fast. Move forward with clarity from S&P Global Ratings’ risk analysis spanning stablecoins, tokenized funds, digital bonds, DeFi protocols, and more. Explore digital asset solutions with S&P Global Ratings at https://www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/products/solutions/digital-assets?utm_campaign=Global-DA-Vaults&utm_source=digital-ads&utm_medium=link&utm_content=CoinDesk1

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Chapters/Timecodes:

00:00 Welcome to The Policy Protocol

01:56 UK's FCA Opens Crypto Authorizations

03:08 SEC's Crypto FAQ and the Buyback Rewrite

05:11 Robinhood's AI Agents and the Accountability Question

08:08 Chairman Patrick McHenry Joins the Show

08:47 Why CLARITY Stalled in the Senate

09:35 Can the Lame Duck Save Market Structure?

10:45 Narrow Crypto Bills vs. the Whole Enchilada

12:47 When an AI Agent Trades, Who's Liable?

14:27 Custody Rules and a Forward-Leaning SEC

15:26 Prediction Markets: Investing or Gambling?

16:26 CFTC Authority and the Supreme Court Fight

19:34 The Legacy of Commissioner Hester Peirce

Chronicle Founder Nik Kunkel joins CoinDesk's Kate Irwin on Markets Outlook to unpack their new report that found over $12 billion in tokenized assets falling short on transparency. Kunkel breaks down the five pillars every tokenized asset needs to meet, why roughly 70% of the assets reviewed don't clear the bar, and what real-time, verifiable proof-of-asset data means for institutions like BlackRock, BNY Mellon and Galaxy racing to bring trillions onchain.

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This episode is brought to you by Grayscale, the world's largest digital asset-focused investment platform. Grayscale's mission is to make digital asset investing simple and open to every investor. Learn more at grayscale.com.

-

Digital markets move fast. Move forward with clarity from S&P Global Ratings’ risk analysis spanning stablecoins, tokenized funds, digital bonds, DeFi protocols, and more. Explore digital asset solutions with S&P Global Ratings at https://www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/products/solutions/digital-assets?utm_campaign=Global-DA-Vaults&utm_source=digital-ads&utm_medium=link&utm_content=CoinDesk1.

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Timecodes:

00:00 - Niklas Kunkel Joins Markets Outlook

02:21 - Chronicle's New Report: Tokenization's Hidden Problem

03:50 - $12.3B Exposed: 70% of Tokenized Assets Fail the Test

06:12 - The Five Pillars Every Tokenized Asset Needs

08:18 - How to Achieve Proof of Asset

10:47 - Why Risk Isn't Priced In

12:57 - BlackRock, BNY Mellon and the Road to Real-Time Regulation

Major AI firms sign voluntary White House safety pact.

OpenAI, Google, Meta and three other AI giants signed a voluntary White House pact to bring in outside auditors for their safety controls, which Trump called "morally binding." The move follows a string of crypto security breaches this year where frontier AI is suspected of helping attackers find and exploit code. CoinDesk's Uyen Truong hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

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This episode is brought to you by Grayscale, the world's largest digital asset-focused investment platform. Grayscale's mission is to make digital asset investing simple and open to every investor. Learn more at grayscale.com.

-

Digital markets move fast. Move forward with clarity from S&P Global Ratings’ risk analysis spanning stablecoins, tokenized funds, digital bonds, DeFi protocols, and more. Explore digital asset solutions with S&P Global Ratings at https://www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/products/solutions/digital-assets?utm_campaign=Global-DA-Vaults&utm_source=digital-ads&utm_medium=link&utm_content=CoinDesk1

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This episode was hosted by Uyen Truong . “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

Robinhood's AI agents that trade for you.

Robinhood unveiled AI agents that can research markets, build strategies, and place trades on a customer's behalf at any hour, alongside crypto perpetual futures with up to 10x leverage. CoinDesk's Uyen Truong hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

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This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. Find out more at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ realfi.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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This episode is brought to you by Grayscale, the world's largest digital asset-focused investment platform. Grayscale's mission is to make digital asset investing simple and open to every investor. Learn more at grayscale.com.

-

This episode was hosted by Uyen Truong . “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

Anthropic's IPO plan.

Anthropic's IPO prospectus reveals plans to spend $518 billion on computing and infrastructure, with a listing that could value the AI company above $2 trillion. But crypto traders betting on its valuation through pre-IPO perpetual futures barely reacted. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

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This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. Find out more at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ realfi.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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This episode is brought to you by Grayscale, the world's largest digital asset-focused investment platform. Grayscale's mission is to make digital asset investing simple and open to every investor. Learn more at grayscale.com.

-

This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.