The Briefing Memo

January 2025 - If you’re new here, welcome to The Briefing Memo, which features the latest insights and updates from The Venture Dept.

Welcoming 2025 🎉

2025 is officially here and since the Presidential Inauguration just one week ago we’ve seen a flurry of activity:

• January 20, 2025: Travis Hill becomes Acting Chairman of the FDIC: One of his priorities is for the FDIC to “adopt a more open-minded approach to innovation and technology adoption, including (1) a more transparent approach to fintech partnerships and to digital assets and tokenization, and (2) engagement to address growing technology costs for community banks.”

• January 21, 2025: Mark Uyeda becomes Acting Chairman of the SEC and SEC Crypto Task Force Announced: Uyeda was designated as Acting Chairman by the President. The SEC also announced a “crypto task force dedicated to developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets.” The task force is led by Commissioner Hester Peirce. As a reminder, Paul Atkins is poised to become SEC Chairman pending Senate confirmation.

• January 21, 2025: Caroline Pham becomes Acting Chairman of the CFTC: Pham will serve in the role pending Senate confirmation of a permanent Chairman.

• January 23, 2025: SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin 122: Repeal of a prior bulletin (SAB 121) that made it difficult for entities subject to SEC oversight, including many banks, to hold digital assets. This action is expected to open the flood gates for financial institutions to enter the space.

• January 23, 2025: Executive Order on Digital Assets: President Trump signed an executive order that, among other things, establishes a President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets. Key milestones for that group include: (1) by February 22 “identify all regulations, guidance documents, orders, or other items that affect the digital asset sector,” (2) by March 24 submit recommendations for which of those should be “rescinded or modified” and (3) by July 22 submit a report to the President recommending “regulatory and legislative proposals that advance the policies established in this order.” These will be key dates to watch over the coming months.

These developments are encouraging for the digital asset industry, but as of now represent only the possibility of meaningful progress, with the coming months being a critical period for making good on this potential.

Department updates

• Matt spoke at Mayer Brown’s recent Financial Services M&A Forum on M&A activity in the digital asset space. The conversation covered recent transactions (including some Matt has had a front row seat for, including Bridge, Alterya, and Standard Custody) as well as what is to come in 2025. It is shaping up to be a good year for many forms of exits.

• Our investment in Bridge was highlighted by LP Advisor Andrew Chang’s Lynx Collective.

• Matt was interviewed by CNN Business about the the Trump memecoin.

• Matt participated in Jets & Capital in Las Vegas, which brings together family offices and investors.

What we’re reading and listening to

• White House: Executive Order to Establish United States Leadership in Digital Financial Technology — If you haven’t read this already, you must.

• Felipe Montealegre: Internet Finance — A compelling and persuasive thesis on internet-native financial services. Felipe lays out an exciting vision that aligns closely with our investment thesis at The Venture Dept.

• Superstate: The Year of Tokenization: Key Trends and Insights from 2024 — An essential year-end recap of the tokenization market.

• Rex Salisbury: What Stripe's $1.1B Acqusition means for the Future of Stablecoins! — Interview with Bridge Co-Founder Zach Abrams on the future of stablecoins.

• Castle Island: Dana Syracuse and Josh Boehm (Paul Hastings LLP) on the 2025 Digital Asset Legal Landscape — Veteran digital asset lawyers Dana and Josh discuss the state of play in today’s regulatory landscape.

• Messari: State of DePIN 2024 — Comprehensive analysis of the DePIN landscape, including coverage of portfolio company Opacity.

• Unchained: How New Stablecoin Startup Bridge Got Acquired by Stripe for $1.1B — Interview with Bridge Co-Founder Zach Abrams on his company’s journey to being acquired by Stripe.

On the horizon

• February: Matt will be speaking at the Aspen Institute Leadership Forum on Inclusive Finance in Washington DC on February 6. He will be in Albany on February 14 for the New York State Emerging Manager Conference.

• March: Matt will be speaking at The Digital Asset Summit (March 18 to 20) in NYC. You can find more information on the summit here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2025-new-york.

• May: Matt will be speak at Stablecon on May 29 in NYC. You can find more information about the event here: https://www.stablecon.com/.