Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has a message for anyone who still thinks crypto is just about dog coins and digital collectibles: you're missing the point.

Speaking on Fox Business on July 20, Cuomo—who recently joined the board of crypto exchange OKX after its joint venture with Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), the parent company of the NYSE—said the biggest misconception about crypto is that it's all about tokens and memes.

"The biggest misconception was that crypto was seen as tokens, memes," Cuomo said. "The real contribution of crypto is not that. It is the financial infrastructure, the technology that they developed."

He described blockchain technology as "the rails of the future for financial markets," capable of enabling faster, cheaper, and more efficient financial transactions. Think of it as upgrading from dial-up to fiber optic for the entire financial system.

While Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) are all public blockchains, Solana stands out for its extremely high transaction speeds and very low fees. That makes it a favorite for high-performance DeFi, tokenized real-world assets, and yes, even meme coins—but Cuomo wants you to look past the surface.

Cuomo called the partnership between ICE and OKX "a marriage that should have happened a long time ago," adding that the convergence of traditional finance and crypto was long overdue. He highlighted tokenization as a key innovation, allowing investors to own fractions of assets through digital representations, making markets more accessible while enabling near-instant settlement.

Crypto Regulation

On the regulatory front, Cuomo acknowledged that the industry initially suffered from bad actors due to a lack of oversight.

"There wasn't enough regulation. When there's no regulation, people will create frauds and play outside the lines," he said.

Cuomo urged U.S. lawmakers to approve the CLARITY Act, warning that the country risks falling behind other jurisdictions. "The U.S. should pass the CLARITY Act. The rest of the world is already ahead of us," he said.

Reflecting on his tenure as New York governor, Cuomo noted that New York became one of the first U.S. states to establish a regulatory framework for crypto because he viewed the technology as inevitable.

"You don't put technology back in the box. You can't stop time and you can't stop technology. It will be the future," he said.