- Future Stack
- Posts
- The SEC Just Said Something That Would Have Been Unthinkable 6 Months Ago
The SEC Just Said Something That Would Have Been Unthinkable 6 Months Ago
The official SEC Twitter account posted this yesterday: "The American values of economic liberty, private property rights, and innovation are in the DNA of the DeFi or decentralized finance movement."
Read that again. The same regulatory body that spent years treating crypto like a financial plague just praised DeFi as fundamentally American.
They used words like "miner," "validator," and "staking as a service" in official communications. This isn't just a policy shift. This is a complete reversal of reality.
But here's what's really happening beneath the surface. While everyone's focused on Trump headlines and tariff drama, the most significant transformation in financial regulation is unfolding in the background.
Paul Atkins replaced Gary Gensler. The entire tone of Washington toward crypto has flipped overnight. Yet nobody seems to be paying attention to the ripple effects that are still coming.
Think about it. We live in a world where tech moves at lightning speed, but traditional finance and politics crawl forward at glacial pace. When Bitcoin ETFs launched, it took months for them to fully integrate into mainstream investment platforms.
Learn AI in 5 minutes a day
This is the easiest way for a busy person wanting to learn AI in as little time as possible:
Sign up for The Rundown AI newsletter
They send you 5-minute email updates on the latest AI news and how to use it
You learn how to become 2x more productive by leveraging AI
When regulatory changes happen, the real impact doesn't hit for quarters, sometimes years. This creates a massive disconnect.
You're operating in crypto time while the rest of the world operates in legacy time. You expect instant results because you're used to instant everything.
But the biggest opportunities often require the patience to wait for slow-moving institutions to catch up. Circle's IPO just hit a 30 billion dollar market cap. Why?
Because it's the only way Wall Street can bet on stablecoins. Scott Bessent and other officials keep talking about how massive stablecoins will become, but traditional investors can't buy into the ecosystem directly.
So they pile into the one stock that gives them exposure. Meanwhile, you're sitting here checking charts every fifteen seconds, wondering why your portfolio isn't reflecting what feels like obvious regulatory wins.
The gap between what's happening and what people realize is happening creates the alpha. The SEC is literally tweeting about the beauty of decentralized finance.
But most investors are still mentally stuck in the Gensler era, treating crypto like it's still under attack. The next twelve months won't look like the last twelve months.
The question is whether you'll have the patience to let the slow-moving world catch up to what you already know.