Miles Jennings is the head of cryptocurrency policy at Andreessen Horowitz, the prominent venture capital firm whose co-founder, Marc Andreessen, has partly blamed Joe Biden’s crypto policies for Silicon Valley VCs’ swing toward Trump. Jennings took the position after Trump tapped his predecessor to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and he’s helped to shape Wyoming’s pathbreaking law on digital currencies. He talks to us about why crypto entrepreneurs are no longer trying to flee the U.S., and why too much political consensus isn’t actually good for progress.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
What’s one underrated big idea?
Really good regulation can unlock innovation. The crypto industry gets a lot of headlines that portray it as trying to fight all regulation, but in reality the industry has mostly been focused on fighting bad regulation. People in the industry just want clear, fair rules that ameliorate the risks that the technology creates, while preserving its benefits. They want a level playing field for entrepreneurs to be able to compete. If you look at the flurry of payment and stablecoin activity that’s happened in the wake of the GENIUS Act, it’s evidence that this approach works.
What’s a technology you think is overhyped?
I would say the casino side of the industry — meme coins are certainly one category. We’ve seen a lot of good products launched, but also a fixation on really speculative products that are very noisy. Those products tend to not be very durable. What really matters when it comes to blockchain technology is that it empowers individuals over middlemen. That kind of core characteristic is what’s going to enable a more open financial system.
What could the government be doing regarding technology that it isn’t?
Passing crypto market structure legislation. It’s very clear that the [Securities and Exchange Commission] has a lack of regulatory authority to oversee the industry. At the same time, with the passage of GENIUS, we’re likely going to see trillions of dollars potentially moving onto blockchains. We have no regulatory framework for how those things function. So if the U.S. can act quickly here, it’s not just going to be competitive on the global scale — it will be the crypto capital of the world
What book most shaped your conception of the future?
“The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom” by James Burnham. A lot of people are focused on politics as being this clash of ideals. And in that context, unity is the ultimate goal: If we can all come to the same belief about something, then everything would be fine. But in “The Machiavellians,” it’s a little bit more cynical, and a little bit more honest in framing politics as being the struggle for power. Too much unity breeds control and stagnation.
Blockchains fit into this in a really important way, in the sense that they provide a pathway out of the controlled and rigid systems that currently dominate our lives. That’s a more fertile ground for the struggle for power to take place.
What has surprised you the most this year?
How fast the tide has turned. Twelve months ago, entrepreneurs were regularly asking: how do we leave the United States? And now they’re asking the exact opposite question: how do we stay here, how do we return?
That’s a product of a bunch of different pieces that are all coming together. At the state level, you have Wyoming’s legal entity structure that is providing a home for projects to deploy their technology, keep it in the United States. We’re seeing the SEC launch Project Crypto that is going to do an enormous amount to move our capital markets on chain.
It just highlights the lack of a constructive approach that the SEC took during the last administration. All of these options were perfectly available to that administration.
Republican China hawks have some questions about Trump’s pending deal with China to spin off an American version of TikTok, POLITICO’s Anthony Adragna reports.
The president issued an executive order on Thursday approving the provisional agreement for the Beijing-based company ByteDance to sell the app to a group of American investors, who will own a majority of a new U.S. TikTok venture. Per the terms of law Congress passed in 2024, the divestment would ensure that foreign adversaries have no more than a 20 percent stake in the venture.
However, Republican hawks in Congress are honing in on the technical details. “Divestment was not the law’s only requirement,” said House China Committee Chair John Moolenaar in a Friday statement. “The law also set firm guardrails that prohibit cooperation between ByteDance and any prospective TikTok successor on the all-important recommendation algorithm.” Moolenaar added he will be “conducting full oversight” over the agreement.
In order to comply with the 2024 law, the order specifies that the venture will control the U.S. TikTok app’s content-recommendation algorithm, and retrain it using American user data. Yet it’s unclear whether that arrangement would truly prevent cooperation, as the venture will continue leasing the algorithm. A trio of Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee also stressed the importance of the law’s technical provisions, urging in a joint statement: “As the details are finalized, we must ensure this deal protects American users from the influence and surveillance of CCP-aligned groups.”
Microsoft is withholding certain storage and AI services it was providing to Israel, out of concern that the technology enabled mass surveillance of Palestinians, POLITICO’s Ellen O’Regan reports.
In a Thursday blog post, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the decision stems from an article in The Guardian indicating that Israel was using its services to store the phone call data of Palestinian civilians. The Guardian also reported that Israel was using the data to facilitate lethal airstrikes. A Microsoft investigation confirmed key elements of The Guardian’s coverage. The company previously concluded from an internal review in May that there was “no evidence” of Israel using its technology to harm people in the assault on Gaza.
“We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians,” Smith wrote, adding that it violates Microsoft’s terms of service. “We have applied this principle in every country around the world, and we have insisted on it repeatedly for more than two decades.” He added that Microsoft will continue to support Israel’s cybersecurity protections.
* More robots are working in Chinese factories than the rest of the world combined.
* Google requests that the Supreme Court intervene in a dispute with Epic Games.
* Meta launches “Vibes,” a short-form video feed of AI content.
* Bot networks helped drive the Cracker Barrel hubbub.
* What TikTok’s sale would mean for American users.
Stay in touch with the whole team: Aaron Mak ([email protected]); Mohar Chatterjee ([email protected]); Steve Heuser ([email protected]); Nate Robson ([email protected]); and Ruth Reader ([email protected]).
