Bullish CEO Tom Farley to sit down with Senator Gillibrand on digital asset policy at CoinDesk conference
The former NYSE president will moderate a conversation with one of crypto's most active lawmakers at the September event in Washington
Tom Farley, the CEO of Bullish and former president of the New York Stock Exchange, will moderate a discussion with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on digital asset policy at the CoinDesk Policy & Regulation Conference on September 22, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
The players and why they matter
Farley took over as CEO of Bullish in May 2023, bringing with him a resume that reads like a bridge between old Wall Street and new. He led the NYSE from 2014 to 2018 and was involved in an early investment in Coinbase, the publicly traded crypto exchange. He also sits on the CFTC’s CEO Innovation Council, which represents exchange interests in regulatory conversations.
Bullish completed its acquisition of CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group in 2023, making Farley’s company both a crypto exchange operator and the parent of one of the industry’s most prominent media outlets.
Gillibrand has positioned herself as one of Congress’s most active legislators on digital assets. She co-introduced the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act in 2022 alongside Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), a bill that aimed to build a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets. The bipartisan effort was notable at the time for attempting to draw clear jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC.
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What’s on the agenda
The CoinDesk Policy & Regulation Conference, set to take place at Convene Hamilton Square in Washington, D.C., is designed for compliance, legal, and policy professionals from both traditional finance and the digital assets sector. The format includes keynotes, panels, and roundtables.
Two pieces of legislation are expected to feature prominently in the broader conference discussions: the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act. The GENIUS Act focuses specifically on stablecoin regulation. The CLARITY Act addresses the broader classification question of which digital assets qualify as securities versus commodities.
The specific agenda for the Farley-Gillibrand session hasn’t been publicly detailed.