CEO @crypto_council. Formerly @Gemini, @KrakenFX, & @WillkieFarr. Tweets are not legal or financial advice. Views mine.
New York, NY
Joined June 2023
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Ji Kim retweeted
Grateful to @UChicagoLaw for including CCI in the 4th Chicago Digital Assets Symposium. Our Senior Global Policy Counsel @georgesleo5 discussed the post-election landscape for market structure alongside an outstanding panel.
Ji Kim retweeted
Congratulations to Nathan Anonick, a trusted advisor, on being nominated to serve as a commissioner at the @CFTC. His hard work and insight have been invaluable to the committee and my service to Arkansans. I am confident he will bring that same dedication to this important role.
whitehouse.gov/presidential-…
Congratulations to Nathan Anonick and Matt Rowland on their nominations to the @CFTC, and to Kristin Johnson and Steve Levine on their nominations to the @SECGov. Strong, bipartisan representation is essential to developing durable rules that safeguard markets, protect consumers, and keep the U.S. leading on innovation.
Nathan’s deep expertise across traditional and digital asset markets would make him an outstanding addition to the CFTC. I’ve seen his leadership, substance, and work ethic up close, and I know he will bring the same to the CFTC. He cares deeply about getting policy right, and our markets will benefit from his thoughtful and rigorous approach.
Matt has more than a decade of experience at the CFTC, most recently as a CFTC detailee to the Senate Ag Committee. That institutional knowledge will serve the CFTC well as it implements new rules. I’ve always respected his command of the issues and his willingness to engage directly.
Kristin brings a rare combination of government service and academic depth, including her prior tenure as a CFTC Commissioner. I always appreciated her expertise and transparent approach, and she will bring both to the SEC. Her understanding of innovation and investor protection will serve the SEC well.
Steve brings valuable experience from his prior service at the SEC and as General Counsel of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. His perspective and knowledge will certainly be an asset as the SEC modernizes its rulebook and takes on other important regulatory matters.
Both the CFTC and SEC will continue to play central and consequential roles in our financial markets, and together these nominees bring a wealth of experience and expertise that will help ensure continued American leadership. 🇺🇸
whitehouse.gov/presidential-…
It's rare to see this kind of universal alignment. When Wall Street, Main Street, the DOJ, and DeFi (and the broader digital assets industry) all end up on the same side, it is worth paying attention to. Simply put, Illinois got this punitive tax wrong.
This is not just an issue for crypto native firms. The tax would hit banks, brokers, asset managers, and many others too. And millions of Illinoisans hold digital assets. That's a lot of people to single out.
Grateful to everyone who filed briefs in support of our litigation.
1/ Update on our lawsuit against the punitive Digital Asset Tax in Illinois: Main Street, Wall Street, DeFi advocates, and the Justice Department are standing against this issue.
Thank you to the trade representing hundreds of broker-dealers, investment banks, and asset managers @SIFMA, the world’s largest business organization @USChamber, and a coalition of DeFi builders and investors led by @Fund_DeFi, @a16z, @Paradigm, & @Uniswap for filing briefs in support of @Crypto_Council and @BlockchainAssn’s lawsuit.
The next generation of financial innovation should be built in America. Our policies should encourage that future.
We will keep fighting. Read more: cryptoforinnovation.org/wash…
Ji Kim retweeted
Today, @a16zfrontier joined a coalition of key DeFi voices in an amicus brief asking an Illinois court to strike down the Digital Asset Tax Act.
The law is fatally vague, opening the door to applications that are inconsistent with Illinois’ own Digital Assets and Consumer Protection Act.
That’s already happened—Recent draft rules would apply to developers and autonomous software with no customers, no custody, and no way to collect a tax from anyone.
The law also taxes identical economic activity differently based only on the underlying technology underneath, which violates the Illinois Constitution’s Uniformity Clause and the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act.
2.64 million Illinoisans hold digital assets—the fifth-most in any state. They deserve better than a tax built to single them out.
@crypto_council and @BlockchainAssn brought this case. We’re proud to stand with them.
Illinois’ Digital Asset Tax Act is Unlawful and Unenforceable
DEF, @a16z, @paradigm, @Uniswap & 14 co-signers joined together to submit an amicus brief supporting @BlockchainAssn, @crypto_council, and @digitalchamber’s challenge to the Illinois’ Digital Asset Tax Act. 👇
Ji Kim retweeted
Thank you to our fellow amici for joining our brief supporting plaintiffs challenging the Illinois Digital Asset Tax Act: @a16z, @aave, @AptosLabs, @aztecnetwork, @chainlinklabs, @TheDRC_, @DromosLabs, @Figment_io, @HyperliquidPC, @jito_labs, @multicoin, @orca_so, @paradigm, @phantom, @SolanaInstitute, @standwithcrypto and @Uniswap.
The IL Act unfairly singles out crypto transactions and leaves people building tools guessing whether they’re supposed to collect it, and should be struck down.
Illinois’ Digital Asset Tax Act is Unlawful and Unenforceable
DEF, @a16z, @paradigm, @Uniswap & 14 co-signers joined together to submit an amicus brief supporting @BlockchainAssn, @crypto_council, and @digitalchamber’s challenge to the Illinois’ Digital Asset Tax Act. 👇
Ji Kim retweeted
1/ Update on our lawsuit against the punitive Digital Asset Tax in Illinois: Main Street, Wall Street, DeFi advocates, and the Justice Department are standing against this issue.
Thank you to the trade representing hundreds of broker-dealers, investment banks, and asset managers @SIFMA, the world’s largest business organization @USChamber, and a coalition of DeFi builders and investors led by @Fund_DeFi, @a16z, @Paradigm, & @Uniswap for filing briefs in support of @Crypto_Council and @BlockchainAssn’s lawsuit.
The next generation of financial innovation should be built in America. Our policies should encourage that future.
We will keep fighting. Read more: cryptoforinnovation.org/wash…
Ji Kim retweeted
2/ Thank you to all who supported this effort
@Fund_DeFi
@a16z
@paradigm
@Uniswap
@aave
@AptosLabs
@aztecnetwork
@chainlinklabs
@TheDRC_
@DromosLabs
@Figment_io
@HyperliquidPC
@jito_labs
@multicoin
@orca_so
@phantom
@SIFMA
@SolanaInstitute
@standwithcrypto
@TheJusticeDept
@USChamber
Ji Kim retweeted
Why ETH is the store of value for what's coming
We are almost certainly heading into a period of high inflation and extreme economic and social volatility. As inflation and risk erode the purchasing power of nation-state money and many other assets, it will matter more than ever to hold assets that keep or grow their value.
Gold and BTC are high-powered money and excellent stores of value. ETH goes further.
Not debt-based. Like gold and BTC, ETH is not debt-based or credit-based money.
Censorship resistant. Like BTC, or gold and silver held physically, ETH transactions on Ethereum L1 can't be censored. That's true for simple payments and for complex smart contract programs like DeFi, and those programs are guaranteed to execute.
Cheap to hold. Like BTC, ETH is relatively cheap to hold and store securely.
Cheap to use at any scale. Ethereum is cheap and easy to use whether a transaction moves $1 or billions. Any well-formed transaction is guaranteed to execute.
Sound, and getting sounder. ETH is disinflationary and becomes ultrasound, meaning deflationary, during periods of high network activity.
Broadly useful. ETH has many uses across the Ethereum economy, and that economy will grow by orders of magnitude as finance, and eventually every industry, moves onchain. Global adoption of the Web protocols in the '90s and '00s transformed the world economy. Ethereum is the foundation of Web3, the user-centric, decentralized web.
Collateral money. ETH works as collateral, and collateral that grows in value over time is a powerful thing.
Home of stablecoins. Ethereum hosts the bulk of stablecoin activity. Stablecoins serve as payment money and as unit-of-account money.
Despot-proof. Like BTC, ETH can't be used by a despot to financially exploit or repress citizens. Over time that should have positive geopolitical effects.
Programmable. ETH is programmable money. You can attach arbitrary logic to transactions and build an entire economy on smart-contract-based agreements and business processes (see shodai.network).
Transparent or private, and auditable either way. Money and financial instruments on Ethereum can be public or private, and in both cases selectively disclosable and auditable. Privacy tools for retail and institutional users include VPNs, mix networks, shielded and privacy pools, Railgun, stealth addresses, Kohaku, and zero-knowledge proofs in many forms, including on L2s and on private permissioned EVM networks linked through bridgeless synchronous composability.
Future-proof. By the end of 2027, or partway through 2028 at the latest, ETH will be quantum-safe and AI-safe money.
ETH is the base money of an exponentially growing ecosystem that should keep growing for decades. Its monetary premium will keep rising, because retail, corporate, and government users will all need to hold some. Part of today's premium is speculative: Ethereum dominates smart contract blockchains, but it hasn't fully hit its stride or gone mainstream yet.
Machine intelligence will supercharge every scientific and technological pursuit and grow global GDP bigger and faster than any of us can imagine. Ethereum L1 and modular Ethereum L2s will undergird most of the high-value agreements, transactions, payment flows, and complex business processes behind the coming hybrid human-machine decentralized economy.
Expanding on why I believe "ETH as store of value (SoV)" makes much more sense to focus on than "ETH as fee-burning token".
Three primary reasons:
1. ETH as fee-burning token never was as strong as it seemed
2. Optimizing for ETH as fee-burning token would demand Ethereum and ETH function in ways that are very hard to make compatible with decentralization and capture resistance.
3. Meanwhile, optimizing for ETH as SoV is aligned with Ethereum focusing on its unique strengths (decentralization and CROPS)
EIP-1559 (including its burn) is fine and good, we should keep them. But we should not feel sad if fee burn is < 10% of breakeven indefinitely; the value of ETH comes from elsewhere.
The core idea: the big thing that people appreciate about Ethereum is decentralization and CROPS. The main pragmatic benefit that these things translate into is stability. SoV is the category where that is not an unneeded extra we merely put effort into for ideological reasons, but rather a pragmatic strength from the perspective of people putting in their assets. And in the era of AI disruption, stability will be highly valued.
Ji Kim retweeted
1000%. These guys are super-elite thinkers, researchers and executors. But important to understand that they are both contributing to the EF's crops mandate as well as building out a ring of growth and engagement around the core backbone of the crops mandate.
EF personnel, via leadership, cryptography team, quantum team and many others continue to do the right things and do them incredibly well.
2027 will be a watershed year for Ethereum. EF, Ethlabs and other core devs are aligned in defining the foundation of a quantum and AI safe credibly neutral platform for money and other financial instruments for the next economic super cycle.
you need to follow everyone who works at @ethlabs_org
their thinking is the future of where Ethereum is heading
they are:
@adietrichs
@barnabemonnot
@binji_x
@casparschwa
@decentrek
@fradamt
@joshrudolf
@_julianma
@ox_shaman
Ji Kim retweeted
As I’ve said many times - BTC was the existence proof for a digital Store of Value.
There will be multiple SoVs, including BTC and ETH (and likely a few more)
Why ETH is the store of value for what's coming
We are almost certainly heading into a period of high inflation and extreme economic and social volatility. As inflation and risk erode the purchasing power of nation-state money and many other assets, it will matter more than ever to hold assets that keep or grow their value.
Gold and BTC are high-powered money and excellent stores of value. ETH goes further.
Not debt-based. Like gold and BTC, ETH is not debt-based or credit-based money.
Censorship resistant. Like BTC, or gold and silver held physically, ETH transactions on Ethereum L1 can't be censored. That's true for simple payments and for complex smart contract programs like DeFi, and those programs are guaranteed to execute.
Cheap to hold. Like BTC, ETH is relatively cheap to hold and store securely.
Cheap to use at any scale. Ethereum is cheap and easy to use whether a transaction moves $1 or billions. Any well-formed transaction is guaranteed to execute.
Sound, and getting sounder. ETH is disinflationary and becomes ultrasound, meaning deflationary, during periods of high network activity.
Broadly useful. ETH has many uses across the Ethereum economy, and that economy will grow by orders of magnitude as finance, and eventually every industry, moves onchain. Global adoption of the Web protocols in the '90s and '00s transformed the world economy. Ethereum is the foundation of Web3, the user-centric, decentralized web.
Collateral money. ETH works as collateral, and collateral that grows in value over time is a powerful thing.
Home of stablecoins. Ethereum hosts the bulk of stablecoin activity. Stablecoins serve as payment money and as unit-of-account money.
Despot-proof. Like BTC, ETH can't be used by a despot to financially exploit or repress citizens. Over time that should have positive geopolitical effects.
Programmable. ETH is programmable money. You can attach arbitrary logic to transactions and build an entire economy on smart-contract-based agreements and business processes (see shodai.network).
Transparent or private, and auditable either way. Money and financial instruments on Ethereum can be public or private, and in both cases selectively disclosable and auditable. Privacy tools for retail and institutional users include VPNs, mix networks, shielded and privacy pools, Railgun, stealth addresses, Kohaku, and zero-knowledge proofs in many forms, including on L2s and on private permissioned EVM networks linked through bridgeless synchronous composability.
Future-proof. By the end of 2027, or partway through 2028 at the latest, ETH will be quantum-safe and AI-safe money.
ETH is the base money of an exponentially growing ecosystem that should keep growing for decades. Its monetary premium will keep rising, because retail, corporate, and government users will all need to hold some. Part of today's premium is speculative: Ethereum dominates smart contract blockchains, but it hasn't fully hit its stride or gone mainstream yet.
Machine intelligence will supercharge every scientific and technological pursuit and grow global GDP bigger and faster than any of us can imagine. Ethereum L1 and modular Ethereum L2s will undergird most of the high-value agreements, transactions, payment flows, and complex business processes behind the coming hybrid human-machine decentralized economy.
Ji Kim retweeted
As we wrote in October, the CFTC already has the authority it needs to support the development of compute markets. It should do so as quickly as possible.
US regulator postpones Wall Street push to trade AI computing futures ft.trib.al/tc6OlaY
Ji Kim retweeted
We at @Payward are pleased to join @Coinbase and other industry leaders in an amicus brief defending the @CFTC’s authority to regulate single-stock perpetual futures in the United States.
Innovation belongs onshore, in transparent, regulated markets—not pushed offshore by litigation and regulatory uncertainty.
Today @Coinbase, @Kalshi, @Payward, DRW Holdings, @Jumptrading, and @Paradigm moved for leave to file an amicus brief defending the @CFTC’s authority to regulate single stock perpetuals in the US.
The law is clear. Under the CEA and the securities futures framework Congress established in 2000, security futures products are not “swaps.”
Others would rather litigate than compete with innovative products that promise to open up new markets and financial opportunities for American investors with the oversight and investor protection of the @CFTC and @SECGov built in.
Killing innovation won’t stop these products. It will just keep them offshore and unregulated. We’ve been working for years to onshore equity perps in a responsible and regulated way and won’t stop until we bring these products to our customers.
Read more in our brief 👇🏼
Ji Kim retweeted
Today @Coinbase, @Kalshi, @Payward, DRW Holdings, @Jumptrading, and @Paradigm moved for leave to file an amicus brief defending the @CFTC’s authority to regulate single stock perpetuals in the US.
The law is clear. Under the CEA and the securities futures framework Congress established in 2000, security futures products are not “swaps.”
Others would rather litigate than compete with innovative products that promise to open up new markets and financial opportunities for American investors with the oversight and investor protection of the @CFTC and @SECGov built in.
Killing innovation won’t stop these products. It will just keep them offshore and unregulated. We’ve been working for years to onshore equity perps in a responsible and regulated way and won’t stop until we bring these products to our customers.
Read more in our brief 👇🏼
Ji Kim retweeted
Today in Brussels, CCI brought members together with Europe’s decision makers at the @EU_Commission and National central banks.
On the agenda (and menu over lunch!) the MiCA review, MISP, the digital euro and blockchain’s role in agentic AI. Regular face-to-face dialogue between industry and policymakers builds the trust that good policy depends on.
Tomorrow, conversations continue with the @Europarl_EN, Member States and third country missions to the EU.
Ji Kim retweeted
Congratulations to CCI member @Coinbase on final @USOCC approval to charter Coinbase National Trust Company. This is a milestone and further integrates digital assets into the U.S. financial system.
Ji Kim retweeted
Coinbase has long pushed for clear, consistent federal rules and today's OCC approval puts more of our business behind that commitment.
This launch is years in the making and another important step toward integrating digital assets into our broader financial system.
Ji Kim retweeted
The following is a statement from CCI CEO @_jikim on @USTreasury and the @federalreserve withdrawing the proposal to lower the threshold for Travel Rule reporting on crypto transactions:
