The CLARITY Act Deadline: Why Crypto Industry Leaders Are Sounding the Alarm! | Summer Mersinger

**Tony Edward** (0:04)
Hey, folks, we are recording at the Injective Policy Summit, powered by the Blockchain Association. And joining me is Summer Mersinger, who is the CEO of the Blockchain Association. Summer, great to see you.

**Summer Mersinger** (0:15)
Yeah, thanks for having me on.

**Tony Edward** (0:17)
Summer, we've done a few virtual interviews, so it's great to be doing it in person.

**Summer Mersinger** (0:21)
Yeah, absolutely.

**Tony Edward** (0:22)
And very timely. Summer, all eyes and ears are focused on the Clarity Act. What can you tell us about the current status of that bill, and what's the odds of it passing by the August recess?

**Summer Mersinger** (0:32)
Yeah, we've been up on the Senate side. We've been on the Hill. We've been talking to staff, talking to senators. Right now, they're in the process of merging what was the Senate Banking Committee's bill with the Senate Agriculture Committee's bill, putting it all together on one bill, and then negotiating some of the last-minute issues that need to get handled before they can go to a vote. Expecting a vote next week and probably early next week. So and that will really be, you know, that's that's kind of the test, you know, to see if we've we've got 60 votes to invoke cloture on the motion. So we're at the like, you know, I'm like, we're at the 10 yard. We're at the one yard line right now.
And I feel like we can we can get it across the finish line.

**Tony Edward** (1:20)
There were reports yesterday of President Trump meeting with some senators today, Thursday, July 16th. What can you tell us about that and who's going to be a part of that?

**Summer Mersinger** (1:29)
Yeah, my understanding is this is on the ethics piece, which is kind of one of the last outstanding issues to get worked out. This is one of those issues that very important to get Democrat support.
My understanding is Senator Bernie Marino from Ohio, Senator Lummis. Those are at least the two that I know of that are going to be there. And the idea is, you've got to have an ethics deal, but you also have to have an ethics deal that the president will sign. And so it's a really good sign that they're having this meeting. And it just shows you that they are committed to getting this done.

**Tony Edward** (2:10)
Yeah, I know that's one of the major headwinds. Something I thought of, as you were mentioning that, Senator Kristen Gillibrand, she had to introduce, if I'm not mistaken, some sort of provision that would regulate meme coins and elected officials of meme coins. Do you think that might be a good compromise that the Democrats are like, you know what, we like this and we can move forward?

**Summer Mersinger** (2:27)
There's been some talk about whether or not that makes sense. I think, you know, there's maybe some concern that if you limit it to meme coins, maybe you're eliminating it too much.
But I think all, you know, kind of all ideas are on the table. And, you know, whatever gets to 60 votes is gonna work, I think, for a lot of people.

**Tony Edward** (2:47)
For sure. The other headwind the bill has been facing is the banks.

**Summer Mersinger** (2:51)
Yes.

**Tony Edward** (2:51)
With stable coin yield and DeFi. Are they still putting up roadblocks? Or you think that might be something that may not be an issue?

**Summer Mersinger** (3:00)
Yeah. And, you know, they're still out there. They're still calling offices and every office we've been in, they said they're hearing from their community banks.
I do think they've lost some of their steam in this argument. You know, we spent a lot of time going back and forth with them, trying to negotiate language. Crypto gave up a lot in that yield agreement. It was not a win for crypto. So to have the banks walk away and say they don't agree with it, just it left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. And I think we're seeing that reflected right now, where people really aren't interested in reopening that agreement.

**Tony Edward** (3:37)
Yeah, because to your point, there was an agreement that was reached. And now they're trying to get a glass of milk with the cookie, right?

**Summer Mersinger** (3:44)
And their champions, Tillerson-Alsabrooks, that was their agreement. And to have the bank say, we're not going to accept this, Tillerson-Alsabrooks put a ton of effort into that. So it was a really, kind of felt bad faith. And I think again, we're seeing it reflected on the Hill. So they're still out there, they're still trying to convince members. But I think a lot of senators have kind of said, you had your chance. You should have agreed to what was decided by Tillerson-Alsabrooks.