Crypto’s truest believers soldier on

If there’s life for crypto after the collapse of the Clarity Act — and there’s probably some! — the folks at Coin Center will be there.

The crypto industry will be feeling the pain of its lost legislative agenda for a long time. We don’t expect the digital asset sector to have another opportunity like this in Congress for years.

But that’s exactly why we wanted to sit down with Jason Somensatto, a former senior aide at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who now leads policy at the Coin Center.

The group has always played a singular role in crypto policy — one that could become more important in the months and years ahead, as the wider crypto industry grapples with the transition from focusing on Capitol Hill to the rest of official Washington.

If the sector is going to hold onto what defines crypto as crypto in the years to come — particularly if Democrats manage to retake the White House in 2028 — Coin Center’s work will likely play a role.

Heart and soul. Founded in 2014, Coin Center is a rare creature in Washington’s crypto circles: a digital asset nonprofit without a firm allegiance to any specific part or player in the crypto industry.

Instead, Coin Center fashions itself as a champion for the core philosophical essence of crypto — the ability to conduct financial activity without intermediation. The nonprofit is effectively a civil liberties group arguing for the core innovations underlying crypto technology by pointing to the First and Fourth Amendments.