Bloomberg Talks · Sep 29, 2026 · 17m · 9m saved
With Andrew Cuomo, former Governor of New York and Co-Chair of the ICE-OKX joint venture
More than a dozen crypto companies left New York rather than comply with the BitLicense Andrew Cuomo signed into law as governor in 2015.
He now co-chairs a crypto exchange's joint venture with Intercontinental Exchange, arguing on Bloomberg Talks that Congress just let a friendlier framework die for the wrong reasons.
"But when the Congress changes, regulation is not legislation."
Cuomo negotiated New York's first crypto license as governor, ran the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under Bill Clinton, and lost this year's New York City mayoral race to Zohran Mamdani before taking the ICE-OKX post.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 17 minutes of audio, 7 minutes of reading.
Here are the 7 arguments that matter.
Key Takeaways
The Clarity Act failed on politics, not substance, and Cuomo wants it on lawmakers' desks by January 1 if the lame-duck Congress doesn't move first
He calls the BitLicense he signed too strict as it was carried out, and says it pushed firms to do business elsewhere
OKX's new insurance covers hacked or defrauded individual accounts, not an exchange-level breach the size of BitGet's
He reads the midterms as a "red undertow," a swing against Republicans rather than for the Democratic agenda
Socialism plays in big cities, not nationally, he said — even as he credits it for helping Zohran Mamdani beat him in this year's New York City mayoral race
Tens of millions of crypto users never organized behind the Clarity Act, which he calls the industry's own failure
Agency rules that filled the regulatory gap could be undone if Congress flips, because "regulation is not legislation"
1. Died On Politics, Not Policy
Cuomo was asked whether the Senate's recently failed procedural vote on the Clarity Act, the digital-asset market-structure bill, went down for the right reasons.
The bill failed on politics, not substance, he said
"It failed because of politics." — Andrew Cuomo
He said the disagreements in the bill were ordinary, the kind every piece of legislation has, and none of them was irreconcilable.
"But there are no right reasons for that bill to fail. We desperately needed it, and we still do." — Andrew Cuomo
The political temperature around a bill rises just before an election and falls after one, he said, and he is hoping the lame-duck Congress, the session that meets after the midterms and before the new Congress is seated, passes the bill once that happens.
Failing that, he wants it ready on January 1
"Otherwise, January 1, it should be right on the desks because it's a major priority." — Andrew Cuomo
