The Rules of The New Money | Part Two
WHO HOLDS THE GAVEL? | The Battle to Govern America’s Digital Markets
Series Thesis | The Rules of The New Money
Every civilization eventually reaches moments when its institutions must confront realities they were never designed to govern. The printing press challenged the Church. The automobile reshaped cities. The Internet transformed communication. Today, bitcoin and digital assets are forcing America to reconsider some of the most fundamental questions about money, property, privacy, sovereignty, and the role of government itself. This series is not about politics, nor is it intended to be a collection of legislative updates that will soon become outdated. It is an exploration of something much deeper: how a free society governs an entirely new monetary architecture while preserving the principles that allow human flourishing. As Washington debates the future of digital assets through legislation like the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act, we will step back from the headlines to examine the larger story through the lenses of Scripture, history, the American Founding, and biblical stewardship. Because the most important question is not simply whether America will regulate digital assets. It is whether we can build rules worthy of the monetary transformation now unfolding before us.
Imagine two judges entering the same courtroom, each carrying a different rulebook.
The first sees an investment. Money was raised, promises were made, buyers expected profits, and someone appeared responsible for delivering them. He reaches for securities law. The second sees a commodity. The asset trades in an open market, its price moves through supply and demand, and no single company controls its existence. He reaches for commodities law. Both judges strike the gavel. Both claim jurisdiction. The asset, meanwhile, continues trading twenty-four hours a day as the courtroom debates what it was yesterday.
This has been the central regulatory struggle surrounding digital assets in America. The Securities and Exchange Commission was created to protect investors, require honest disclosure, and govern the raising and trading of securities. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversees derivatives markets and commodities such as wheat, oil, and gold. Bitcoin is widely treated as a commodity. Tokenized securities remain securities. The harder territory lies between them, where digital assets may begin through entrepreneurial fundraising but later operate through functioning networks no longer dependent upon a single managerial enterprise.
Washington spent years arguing over where one jurisdiction ended and the other began. The SEC often viewed digital assets through the Howey test, a Supreme Court standard born from a 1940s citrus-grove investment scheme. The CFTC treated bitcoin and certain other digital assets as commodities but possessed limited authority over their spot markets. In other words, one regulator had a powerful rulebook that often fit poorly, while the other appeared to have the more natural jurisdiction but lacked the full authority to police the field. It was a little like asking whether a horse should be governed by the Department of Transportation because someone eventually attached a wagon to it.
The debate was never merely bureaucratic. The agency holding the gavel determines the disclosures companies must provide, the exchanges on which assets may trade, the intermediaries required to register, the enforcement powers available to government, and ultimately which innovations can be built legally inside the United States. Jurisdiction sounds like the sort of word invented to end dinner-table conversations. In practice, it decides who may participate, who must ask permission, who bears responsibility when something fails, and whether entrepreneurs build in New York, Wyoming, Singapore, Dubai, or somewhere beyond America’s reach.
The Founders understood that authority must be clearly defined because undefined power rarely remains modest. They separated the legislative, executive, and judicial branches not because they distrusted government altogether, but because they understood human nature. James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51 that government must first control the governed and then be obliged to control itself. That insight remains remarkably relevant. Markets without accountability invite fraud. Government without boundaries invites overreach. A free republic requires both lawful authority and lawful restraint.
Scripture reveals the same principle. When Moses attempted to judge every dispute among the Israelites by himself, his father-in-law Jethro warned him, “What you are doing is not good.” Moses possessed authority, wisdom, and the calling of God, yet the structure surrounding that authority was unsustainable. Jethro advised him to establish capable leaders, define responsibility, and distribute judgment appropriately. The problem was not that judgment existed. The problem was that jurisdiction had not been properly ordered.
America’s digital-asset debate has often resembled Moses sitting alone from morning until evening while millions of people wait for answers. Is this token a security? Is the network sufficiently decentralized? Can an exchange legally list it? Does staking constitute an investment contract? Must software developers register as financial intermediaries? For years, too many of these questions were answered through speeches, lawsuits, settlements, and enforcement actions rather than through durable legislation. Entrepreneurs were told to come inside and register, then frequently discovered that the door had no handle.
The landscape has begun to change. The SEC and CFTC have moved toward greater coordination, including a joint framework distinguishing digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities. Congress has also attempted to define clearer lanes, generally preserving SEC authority over securities and capital formation while expanding CFTC authority over digital-commodity spot markets. These developments matter, but regulatory harmony between agencies is not the same as statutory permanence. An interpretation can guide the present administration and still be revised by the next. Durable rules ultimately require Congress to do what only Congress can do: write the law.
There is also a danger in assuming that moving the gavel automatically produces wisdom. The CFTC may offer a more principles-based framework, but broader jurisdiction would require greater resources, technical expertise, and institutional capacity. The SEC may possess stronger disclosure and enforcement machinery, but applying securities laws indiscriminately can mistake decentralized networks for corporations and software protocols for management teams. The goal should not be to find the regulator most friendly to digital assets. It should be to establish the authority most faithful to the actual nature and risks of each asset.
Kingdom thinking refuses the false choice between chaos and control. God is a God of order, but biblical order is never arbitrary domination. It assigns responsibility, restrains power, protects the vulnerable, and makes accountability visible. The gavel should neither become a hammer searching for nails nor a ceremonial prop incapable of delivering justice. It must rest in hands governed by wisdom, humility, and clearly defined authority.
The question of who holds the gavel therefore leads to an even larger question. What happens when America begins allowing private companies to issue digital dollars while refusing to let the Federal Reserve issue one of its own?
That is where the regulatory story becomes a monetary one.
Kingdom Principle 👑
Godly authority must be clearly defined, properly distributed, and faithfully restrained.
Scripture does not reject authority. It teaches us how authority should be exercised. From Jethro’s counsel to Moses to the governing structures established throughout the early Church, biblical leadership assigns responsibility so that justice can be administered without concentrating unchecked power in a single person or institution. Authority becomes dangerous when its boundaries are unclear, but it becomes equally ineffective when no one accepts responsibility. Kingdom stewardship requires both courage to govern and humility to remain governed by truth.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we should not merely ask which regulator favors our preferred outcome. We should ask whether the rules protect people, punish deception, preserve liberty, and reflect the reality they claim to govern. A righteous gavel does not exist to protect the powerful or crush the unfamiliar. It exists to uphold justice beneath the authority of God.
Prayer 🙏
Heavenly Father, You are the righteous Judge, the source of all wisdom, justice, and rightful authority. Give our leaders discernment as they establish rules for technologies and markets that previous generations could scarcely have imagined. Keep them from governing through fear, political ambition, institutional rivalry, or financial influence.
Teach us to respect lawful authority while remembering that every earthly institution remains accountable to You. Protect consumers from fraud, innovators from arbitrary power, and our nation from surrendering its future through either recklessness or fear. May those who hold the gavel exercise authority with humility, courage, wisdom, and restraint.
Above all, keep our trust anchored not in regulators, markets, governments, or technology, but in Jesus Christ, our righteous Judge and eternal King.
In Jesus’ name, Amen. 🙏📖⚖️₿🏛️🕊️👑