Kyle Samani: Genius Act signing is the most consequential financial legislation since Dodd-Frank — and it's not priced in

was expecting a puzzle and we are clearly in game territory. Very fun. Uh, very exciting work. All right, guys. Thanks for having me on. We'll talk soon, Mike. Bye. Uh, up next, we'll stop and waiting is Kamani. Welcome to the stream. Sorry for the wait. We were we were proving our humanity with Arc AGI V3.

Welcome to the stream. In the suit. In the suit. You look fantastic on a special day. You didn't have to wear the suit just for the show. Come on. And look, I wanted to kind of outdo y'all a little bit, too. So, fantastic. Look looking sharp. Looking sharp. Are you in Are you in DC right now? I am in DC.

I'm in a little phone booth about two blocks from the White House. Fantastic. Give us the update. What's happening in DC? Um, yeah. Let me turn my phone here real quick. Um, awesome guys. Thanks for having me back on. Pleasure to be here. Um, today's a big day for for Cryptoland.

Uh, President Trump just signed the Genius uh bill into law. Um, yes, huge huge day for industry. This is the uh probably most consequential piece of financial legislation since Frank DoddFrank. Um, it's the first crypto legislation um we've ever had.

Um, and just an incredible amount of which just crazy to say out loud this this you know over how however far we are into this uh it's been like crypto has been a thing for like almost 20 years now like what Bitcoin it's a thing that you've been basically begging for just like give us some regulatory finally here it's great finally here yeah I mean industry has been begging for regulation under the Biden administration and they said nope no clarity we're just going to shoot randomly uh and you know finally like we actually can operate.

It's pretty amazing. Fantastic. Um uh what does this mean for uh non-stable coin chains? Like what does this mean for Salana? What does this mean for Bitcoin? Is there any implication there? Um or is this purely priced in? Uh yeah, it's definitely not priced in.

So first let me touch quickly on like what I think it means for the US and then can get into kind of like the the chains and stuff. Yeah.

So I think the correct way to think about this this is um you know there's 8 billion people in the world and um I have a theory that if you were to go to each of those eight billion people and ask them hey if you can denominate your wealth in any asset it could be Apple stock S&P 500 bars of gold euros yen yuan whatever you want if you could denominate your wealth in any asset without fear of political persecution in your local jurisdiction what asset would you choose and my suspicion is that somewhere between 60 and 80% of the world would say US dollars.

Mhm. Um and for people who don't live inside the United States, having a US dollar bank account is somewhere between very difficult and impossible um outside of like the top 1% or so of the of the global global wealth. And stable coins make it trivial for anyone in the world to host to have dollars in their pocket.

Um you don't need to sign up for permission. You just you take your phone, your phone literally picks a random number, that's your private key, and you're you're good to go to receive dollars.

Um, I think this will probably represent one of the like largest movements in capital in human history as you enable, call it, five to six billion people to like start holding more dollars more easily than they otherwise could hold them.

Um, and the scale of what it means is actually really profound and I think really underappreciated. uh which is why uh I think it's not priced in because it's just hard to grasp what this means for everyone in the world to be able to hold one currency. This has never happened in human history before. Yeah.

Um this is fascinating. I mean I'm I'm I'm like I I'm almost like zooming out like I'm sure it's good for a lot of different projects and companies and tokens and chains, but it feels just incredibly bullish for America.

like we've been because there was this narrative of like oh the tariffs and stuff like we're going to lose dollar dominance where like we're going to lose global reserve status and this just feels like coming from the the halfcourt shot. Yeah.

It was like an artificial you know it was like a supply demand imbalance but the supply constraint was just coming from like you don't have regulators in in other places that said you can't set up a dollar US dollar bank account in our country. We're just not going to allow that. Exactly. Yeah.

You don't have to be like even cryp pro crypto or crypto native or anything like that for America. And this is like you know going back sort of the core tenants of crypto like permissionless finance. It's like okay like permissionless access to US dollars where somebody says I want to get paid in dollars.

They set up a wallet and it's software and they get paid and it's it is it's very cool.

I mean it's very much capitalism like just applied to money like if you identify as a capitalist like you should pause and think oh my god like actually the world as a whole was actually shockingly anti- capitalist in terms of just like currency access nations. Yeah. Yeah. It's wild.

Uh what else should we talk about today? Uh is there any other downstream things? Uh can you give us a a temperature check on the rest of the regulation? What happens next? Uh anything else that's going on in Washington that we should be following? Yeah, I mean downstream implications, there's a ton.

So, first a quick regulation. So, the Genius Act passed, that's the stable coin bill. Um, the next major act the industry is focused on is now called the Clarity Act. Y um this is being uh primarily sponsored by uh Tar French Hill in the house. Um and this is otherwise known as kind of the market structure act.

And the basic kind of outline of of clarity is to answer the question which regulator should regulate what what should they they regulate? This really kind of defines the lines between Treasury, SEC, and CFCC. Who has kind of, you know, perview over which domains?

Uh, answer the question, what is a security, what it's not? It deals with DeFi to some extent. Um, and so that's kind of the other really big meaty bill. Um, and then the third one is actually one that kind of got added in recently and industry is fine with is just basically this anti-CBDC bill.

Basically just saying like America won't make a CBDC. Um, so that that's all in in flight now. You know, I'm optimistic clarity will pass in the next few months. Um, it passed the House earlier this week. Um, it's now in the Senate and there's going to be some revisions and stuff in the Senate. We'll see where it goes.

Anything anything that's that's in there so far that you're that you think that that that the Senate should should focus on correcting? Yeah, there there's definitely more disagreement in industry about like, you know, the the substance of clarity.

I can't get into the specifics, but like certainly we're we're right now in dialogue with a lot of our peers and um lawmakers and their staff on on these issues. Makes sense. Makes sense. The other question you asked was like what's the implications for like industry?

I really want to emphasize that I mean by making it it's now legal stable coins were illegal for all practical purposes for like any me major regulated company kind of anywhere in the world. Um and it is now legal and blessed for them to interact with stable coins.

And so what I think yeah you're going to see every bank you know Jamie Diamond Bank of America CEOs are talking about this now. I actually don't think that's the super relevant angle to me.

The much more important angle is it is now legal and okay for iOS, Android, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Tik Tok, every piece of major consumer software in the world now can legally embed stable coins. Wow. Um, and it's going to be a matter matter of time before they do.

And what that's going to mean for global commerce, for global payments, for people accessing crypto is profound.

And I think you're and and as all those people get their private keys and onboard to these wallets um that's then going to obviously provide um the the foundation that that that money is going to be transacting over Ethereum, Salana, etc.

And it's going to be just a massive boon for all of crypto as you on board a few billion people with this stuff. It's fascinating. Absolutely wild. Yeah, I'm excited. I imagine that Yeah, the the big tech angle is super fascinating. I I imagine that some of them will take different paths, different shapes.

It's like we're going to test different structures. Yeah. What I hope is like, hey, stable coins are already there there's large market caps. There's lots of liquidity. Let's not have everybody launch their own stable coin.

Let's just like focus on actually integrating them into and making them, you know, more valuable in these different ecosystems.

It's also funny because I feel like for a while there was a little bit of a uh there's a little bit of like a chattering class critique of crypto being like well if it was so great like why why why doesn't Apple just integrate stable coins and it's like well because it was illegal and like they're a very riskaverse company.

There was no chance they were going to do it but now they actually have it as an option and then there's a competitive dynamic and they'll probably run experiments and yeah maybe it'll take a few years for them to build some stuff. Maybe some stuff will be aqua hires or acquisitions.

There's a bunch of different thing ways it can play out, but it'll be really interesting to follow like how this actually gets in the hands of like billions and billions of people. Fascinating.

Yeah, it's an incredible opportunity and I mean you just look at like now where's the liquidity, where are people trading today and you know um and like which chains have to scale to support all these users and it's just it bodess incredibly well for for industry as a whole. That's fantastic.

Well, as there's more news, come back on and uh I'm sure you'll be celebrating responsibly in uh in DC. So have fun out there. Hey guys, thanks so much for having me back on. Have a great one. We'll talk to you soon. Bye Kyle. Talk to you soon. What a way to end the week.

Fantastic little news hits, little chopping it up with friends. Uh impro fun. I I enjoyed that. One of the most entertaining Yeah. people on earth. Indeed. Indeed. We should close with uh this this wonderful article in the mansion section. Which one are we? We we had a few queued up.

So So this is I wanted to I wanted to do this because it is essentially written by Arnold Schwarzenegger. So it is it's his words as told to Mark Meyers who just transcribed them and then they published it in the Wall Street Journal. And it's one it's Arnold Schwarzenegger the moment he fell in love with America.

Uh beautiful. My early years in a in Austria were challenging. After World War II, the economy in the Graz suburb where I grew up was shattered. Everyone suffered. My father Gustav was very very was a very very sweet man. But when he drank, his personality changed. He became more violent and demanding.

His behavior and drinking were influenced by the war's remnants. Shrapnel in his legs that caused him pain, the len the lingering effects of malaria, and what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder. My mother, Aurelia, was a homemaker. Our family lived on the second floor of a three-story building.

The first floor was occupied by the local forest ranger and the second wars uh and for and the second war is for my father. Uh the second floor was for my father. The town's police chief um he was the town's police chief. The forest ranger had a phone but we didn't and there was no running water.

I wasn't happy with the life I saw unfolding. I always had a feeling deep down that I needed to look for something else, something outside the box. At age 10, I fell in love with America. That came from watching film roles in school. The teacher would advance the strips by turning a knob, showing one image at a time.

I was blown away. They were about things like the Golden uh like the Golden Gate Bridge in the Empire State Building and cars with huge fins driving on US highways with six lanes on each side. At some point, there was a role on Hollywood. I'd never seen anything like it. The glamour, the lights, and the houses.

I said to myself, "What am I doing here? " I wanted to be in America to become famous and rich. As I got older, the question shifted to, "How do I get there? " At 15, I stumbled into bodybuilding at our local lake and said to myself, "Well, that's in America.

" The lifeguard always had other top athletes around, including weightlifters. As a teen, my testosterone was kicking in, and I wanted to look like a He-Man. I read about Roy Reg Reg Park, an English bodybuilder who played Hercules in Italian movies. He won Mr. Universe three times and became an actor.

My dream was possible. All of my time was spent in this world of physical fitness, building up muscles to complete to compete in contests and fantasizing about movie stardom. At one point, I was in school looking out the window and daydreaming when a piece of chalk hit me in the head.

My teacher said, "Arnold, what do you think you're doing in here? " talking to myself. I had no interest in what he was saying. He's not interested in the school. In 1967, I won the amateur Mr. Universe title in London when I was 20. Then I trained in Munich for another year and won my first professional Mr.

Universe title after I won in 1960. It's so funny this the the thinking of the 60s and and and just like hippie hippie culture and then Arnold's just like rising the ranks. Yes, it's bodybuilding. It's amazing. Uh, so he said in 19687 I won the amateur Mr.

Universe title and then he won the first professional universe title. After I won in 1968, Joe Wider, a bodybuilding enthusiast who published Muscle magazines, brought me to Los Angeles. He put me up in an apartment in Venice near Gold's gym where I trained. When I arrived, let's hear for Gold's production team.

You guys love that place. That's where I work at. It's a great spot. It's fantastic. Um, when I arrived in LA, I was totally dis I was totally disappointed. The city looked nothing like New York City with its tall buildings. Venice's sidewalks were dirty and no one cleaned them, and drugs were sold in back alleys.

Two more Mr. Universe titles followed. In 1969 and 1970, from the start, I knew bodybuilding was going to lead to acting. In 1970, I was cast in Hercules in New York and then in the TV series and films, including Stay Hungry in 1976, for which I won the Golden Globe Award for best acting debut.

Then came The Streets of San Francisco and Pumping Iron in 1977. Pumping Iron is fantastic. If you haven't seen it, I know you haven't. Conan the Barbarian in the big one in 1982. I was quoting Conan the Barbarian to our team. I don't think anyone got the reference, but we'll play the YouTube video. This is wild.

So, he says, "In the middle of all this, I studied remotely for a bachelor's degree in business. " Let's give it up for all the the business majors out there. Most important major clear at the University of Wisconsin. He was doing that remotely. How were you doing 82? College in ' 82. I guess mail it mail it back.

Oh, you maybe get mailed an assignment back. That is Yeah, that is crazy. How do you do that? I don't I have no idea. From the time I arrived in America, I went to He invented remote work. Arnold invented remote work. He really did. Yeah, that is a crazy crazy thing.

U we'll have to have him on the show and ask him about his his time as a remote business major at University of Wisconsin Superior. Uh I went to community college to take English classes and get smart about business. In 1983, I became a US citizen. That's Aaron for Arnold Schwarzenegger. One of the best to ever do it.

Today, I live in contemp in a contemporary house in Brentwood, Los Angeles. It's the perfect place where I can see the foliage and the mountains. I'm close to town. It's private and I have my pet I have all my pet animals. Uh which means not just dogs. He definitely has more than that. Uh we'd love to know what he has.

Uh in the 1980s, I took my mother to the white to a White House dinner to meet President Reagan. At the table, I went to scratch my nose and she hit my hand in front of everyone. She said, "Don't pick your nose in the White House, please, Arnold. " I wasn't. But that didn't stop her.

No matter how big you get, your mother knows how to shrink you just a little. What a great story. I uh am sad that I was not super conscious when Arnold was the governor of California. Yeah. Great. Like I I remember it. Yeah. But I I I wasn't there for probably all the incredible uh moments.

Um, and uh, I don't even have a strong take on if he was like a great governor, but uh, I think he's awesome as a as an individual. Totally. And uh, that's a great place to be. I hope Sam Sam Sulick I hope he makes a run in politics as well. Me too. I would love it. I think that would be powerful. And Hollywood first.

Can you imagine daily vlog Sam Sulick vlogs from the campaign trail? Incredible. He's just getting all of his constituents. Hey, just come for a lift. Come for a lift. I think we're I think we're manifesting it. We can talk policy. We get him in a Jason Carmen directed reboot of the Terminator. Yeah.

Get him into Hollywood. Get him trained up. Make him a household name more than he is already. Then get him on the campaign trail. I think we have a winner in Soule. Well, this was a crazy, wild, often fun week and I can't wait for next week. Yeah. or we'll see you Monday.