Crypto Leaders to Meet Senate Democrats on Market-Structure Talks

A group of leading cryptocurrency executives will meet with Senate Democrats on Wednesday, Oct. 22, in Washington for a roundtable aimed at resolving a standoff over U.S. crypto market structure legislation, organizers and participants said. The session, to be led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, comes after a leaked Democratic proposal on decentralized finance renewed industry and partisan objections and prompted Republican negotiators to withdraw from bipartisan talks.

Expected to attend are Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Chainlink CEO Sergey Nazarov, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, Kraken CEO David Ripley, Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams, Circle Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte, Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty, Jito Chief Legal Officer Rebecca Rettig, Solana Policy Institute President Kristin Smith, and Andreessen Horowitz crypto general counsel Miles Jennings, with additional participants possible. The meeting brings together leaders from centralized exchanges, protocol teams and legal advisers at a moment when jurisdictional questions and how to regulate decentralized finance are key sticking points.

The immediate catalyst for the roundtable was a Democratic draft...