Day 3 • A grand finale in Miami, a return set for 2027

💥 Day 3 Highlights   Across three days, 15,000 attendees descended on Miami for more than 150 sessions, over 5,000 meetings, and hands-on workshops at the intersection of finance and digital assets.   CZ was there (in person!).   To close out the third day of Consensus, Donald Trump Jr. spoke on his involvement at World Liberty Financial, Aave's Linda Jeng said the protocol will expand its listing standards, and Tom Lee said Bitmine may slow its ether purchases as it approaches its accumulation goal.   Coinbax won this year's PitchFest. Jesse Spiro, Tether's global head of regulatory affairs, said crypto shouldn't be bipartisan and warned of a "seismic" effect from this year's election.   After an exhilarating debut in Miami, Consensus will return to South Beach next year, May 4–6, 2027.    The following year, it heads back to where it all started: New York City, May 9–11, 2028.   📰 Breaking News   CZ floats Binance.US revival to give U.S. users access to global crypto liquidity   New launch: Crypto.com Travel, Crypto.com's in-app travel and entertainment booking experience powered by Bookit   Midnight Foundation announced plans for a “Midnight Collateral Warehouse”   Inveniam launches NVNM Chain, the attestation layer for AI agents   📣 Overheard in Miami   🌍 @consensus2026 Miami is packed. 3 days of networking, partnerships & real deals shaping the next global growth cycle. — @BlocksterCom   Consensus still turns hallway convos into actual deals, so Miami cofounders bring big ideas and extra coffee. — @alexabelonix   sweaty miami handshakes seal the best deals — @LolaSt1400   “Since the very beginning of this global events marathon years ago, @consensus2026 has always stood out as an extraordinary gathering that connects the right audience with the right opportunities” — @MAKACHAIN_   Beyond the fun, sun, and great company , moments like these highlight something bigger — @Dreamsgrowth WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS Share Your Experience Missed out on the real deal? FREE VIRTUAL PASS Copyright © 2026 CoinDesk. All rights reserved. CoinDesk, Inc., 61 9th Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY, 10011, USA Unsubscribe Manage Preferences

"Everything's fine" - Trump Jr. on WLFI

Trump Jr. says WLFI is fine. Privacy and compliance can coexist onchain. And AI agents are the next big stablecoin use case. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Thursday, May 7, 2026 · Consensus Miami Donald Trump Jr. denies rumors World Liberty Financial is falling apart Taking the Consensus Miami mainstage Thursday with WLFI CEO Zach Witkoff, Donald Trump Jr. pushed back hard against social media rumors that the Trump-backed crypto platform is collapsing or losing family support. "Just because they say it doesn't mean it's true," Trump Jr. said. "Narratives get created. They're driven, and they're bot-farm based." The appearance was the first time Trump Jr. and Witkoff have shared a major crypto conference stage, and came days after WLFI filed a defamation lawsuit against Tron founder Justin Sun in Florida state court, accusing him of gross misconduct in WLFI token purchases and using influencers and bots to spread false claims. Witkoff defended WLFI's USD1 stablecoin as fully backed with real-time, on-chain proof of reserves via Chainlink. The firm also faces a $500 million UAE-linked equity stake controversy, a pending federal bank charter application, and a California lawsuit from Sun claiming WLFI unfairly froze his tokens. Read the full story → Consensus preview sponsored by GoMining Discover GoBTC Pay by GoMining — a simple way to pay for everyday shopping with Bitcoin: on-chain, instant, secure. At Consensus, you can try it yourself and buy coffee and snacks with Bitcoin at the GoBTC Pay outlet. We'll give everyone who wants to test the solution the equivalent of $20 in sats, so your first coffee paid in BTC is on us! Learn more at the GoMining booth or the GoBTC Pay outlet. Tech · Consensus Miami Privacy and accountability can coexist onchain, say panelists at Consensus Miami A Consensus Miami panel argued that the long-standing tension between blockchain privacy and institutional compliance is increasingly solvable through an onchain "intelligence layer" — separating private permissioned networks for institutional accountability from public permissionless chains for liquidity, with forensics tools screening at the wallet-address level rather than tying every user to a real-world identity. Moody's Rajeev Bamra noted that institutional digital finance has grown by over 100–150% in the past 18 months but remains roughly $35 billion against $200 trillion+ in traditional clearing flows. ChangeNOW's Pauline Shangett said her company maps wallet addresses rather than identities to satisfy compliance and law enforcement — a design that protects users while still giving regulators the audit trail they need. Read more → Business · Consensus Miami AI agents and large corporates will lead the next stablecoin boom, executives say Stablecoins are entering a new phase, with two distinct growth engines converging: large corporations using them for cross-border treasury flows, and AI agents beginning to use blockchain rails for autonomous micropayments. Bridge executive Lindsey Einhaus said major corporates are actively exploring stablecoins to replace slow, costly correspondent banking infrastructure for international settlements. Deus X Capital echoed the AI agent angle — arguing that as autonomous software proliferates, stablecoins become the natural payment rail because they're programmable, instant, and don't require human intermediaries. Combined, both dynamics point to a stablecoin expansion driven not by retail speculation but by institutional utility and machine-to-machine commerce. Read more → Know someone who should be reading this? Share this newsletter See all of CoinDesk’s newsletters    CoinDesk, Inc., 61 9th Avenue, 5th Floor, New York,NY,10011,USA, Unsubscribe Manage Preferences   Copyright © 2026 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.

🎉 CLARITY by July 4?

CLARITY Act could pass by July 4. Animoca is going all-in on AI. And bitcoin lenders want to look more like banks. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Thursday, May 7, 2026 · Consensus Miami Consensus Day 2: CLARITY Act could pass by July 4, Saylor pitches yieldcoins, quantum clock ticking The CLARITY Act, the critical U.S. market structure legislation that's been in limbo since January, could become law on America's birthday, under an aggressive timeline laid out by a White House adviser. Patrick Witt, the Executive Director of the President's Council on Digital Assets, told the audience at day 2 of Consensus Miami that if the Senate Banking Committee holds a markup this month, it would give the Senate four weeks to merge the bill with the Senate Agriculture Committee version and June to work out issues with the House of Representatives. It's an aggressive timeline, "but it is an achievable timeline," he said. Michael Saylor followed up to lay out his case for yieldcoins, laying out a vision for the potential future of the digital assets sector. And the time is now to start working on post-quantum security, Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden said. Catch up on all of the coverage here. Wednesday will see panels addressing prediction markets and sports betting, stablecoins, banking and more. Privacy and agentic payments will again take the stage. Tom Lee will present a keynote, while stablecoin executives will weigh in on recent regulatory advancements. World Liberty Financial's Donald Trump, Jr. and Zach Witkoff will take the main stage right after lunch, while payments executives will lay out how crypto cards and other tools will work. CoinDesk will host its Policy & Regulation Summit, diving deep into the key regulatory issues you should be paying attention to: DeFi regulation, the 2026 election and more. The day will end with a debate on prediction markets. Are they just gambling products dressed up in a fancy costume? Or are these contracts actually a novel financial product? And what does that all mean for you? Come through and find out. For a full agenda, click here. Consensus preview sponsored by GoMining Discover GoBTC Pay by GoMining — a simple way to pay for everyday shopping with Bitcoin: on-chain, instant, secure. At Consensus, you can try it yourself and buy coffee and snacks with Bitcoin at the GoBTC Pay outlet. We'll give everyone who wants to test the solution the equivalent of $20 in sats, so your first coffee paid in BTC is on us! Learn more at the GoMining booth or the GoBTC Pay outlet. Markets · Consensus Miami Animoca pivots from virtual worlds to an AI-driven metaverse at Consensus 2026 Animoca Brands founder Yat Siu told the Consensus Miami audience that the metaverse the company has spent a decade building is no longer primarily a virtual world — it's becoming the infrastructure layer for AI agents. Siu argued that crypto is the natural asset class for autonomous AI systems because blockchain provides the trust, sovereignty, and programmable economics that AI agents require: "Crypto is essentially the natural asset class of basically AI agents." Animoca, which has invested in more than 600 companies across gaming, DeFi, stablecoins, and AI, is actively repositioning toward AI-driven digital ownership, with a planned Nasdaq listing via reverse merger with Currenc Group later this year. Institutional adoption, Siu said, will increasingly show up as utility demand — driven by the CLARITY Act's market structure clarity — not just Bitcoin ETF exposure. Read more → Markets · Consensus Miami Bitcoin lenders say institutions want crypto credit to look more like TradFi Executives from Two Prime, Ledn, and Lygos Finance told Consensus Miami attendees that the next phase of bitcoin-backed lending growth will be won not by DeFi innovation but by boring, familiar TradFi structure. Two Prime CEO Alexander Blume put it plainly: "The moment you start trying to explain how any of this stuff works, they're just like, No... We'll pay more. Don't lose my money." Institutions scrutinize where collateral is held, whether it's rehypothecated, and whether there's clear legal accountability — lessons burned in by the Celsius, Voyager, and BlockFi collapses of 2022. Ledn's Adam Reeds said custody location is the single most important variable. Lygos Finance's Jay Patel called rehypothecation the critical factor borrowers must evaluate before signing anything. Read more → Know someone who should be reading this? Share this newsletter See all of CoinDesk’s newsletters    CoinDesk, Inc., 61 9th Avenue, 5th Floor, New York,NY,10011,USA, Unsubscribe Manage Preferences   Copyright © 2026 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.