Cuomo said years of uncertainty have made it harder for companies to build products in the U.S. while knowing where regulators will draw the line. “You have to know the rules of the game if you want a company to comply,” he said. “What’s fair and what’s foul?”
He contrasted the U.S. with Europe, where the European Union has implemented a bloc-wide crypto framework. Without federal legislation, Cuomo said, the U.S. risks losing business and investment to markets where the rules are clearer.
Getting a bill through Congress will require compromise, he said. Cuomo pushed back on attempts to blame either Democrats or Republicans for the holdup and said disagreements over ethics provisions and other parts of the bill should not sink it.
If Congress doesn’t act, regulators will be left to fill the gap, Cuomo said. That could mean rules change each time political power shifts in Washington, making long-term planning harder for crypto and financial firms.
Cuomo has a direct stake in how those rules develop. He is leading a joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. The venture is building infrastructure to connect crypto with traditional financial markets.
