Key Highlights: Illinois and industry challengers have submitted a joint filing seeking to delay collection of the state’s 0.2% Digital Asset Tax by six months, though the court had not confirmed entry of the order as of Oct. 4. The underlying statute remains in force without concessions of unconstitutionality, but the proposed pause would defer ...
Key Highlights: U.S. authorities and lawmakers intensified crypto enforcement, with the Treasury targeting the Russia-linked A7 Network and a Senate subcommittee scrutinizing Tether’s sanctions controls. In Europe, ESMA recommended broadening the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework to regulate DeFi intermediaries, technical interfaces, and staking activities. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) officially opened its authorization ...
Key Highlights The SEC is advancing a comprehensive digital asset framework, building on major reforms initiated after former Chair Gary Gensler’s departure in 2025. Key regulatory initiatives include a crypto custody framework, Regulation Crypto Assets, and a 5-year Innovation Exemption sandbox for decentralized trading. While SEC leadership aims to make the U.S. the global crypto ...
Key Highlights The crypto industry failed to secure Senate passage of the Clarity Act, but the legislation advanced farther than any previous crypto bill. Industry advocates say bipartisan agreements reached during the Clarity negotiations could support a future legislative effort. Crypto lobbying is continuing as the SEC and CFTC develop new policy and regulatory proposals. ...
Key Highlights The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued new FAQs Thursday clarifying how token buybacks, liquid staking receipts, and ongoing blockchain development are analyzed under the Howey test and federal securities laws. Staff stated that for a functional crypto network, announcing a buyback of a non-security token does not by itself constitute a promise ...
Key Highlights The failure to pass the Clarity Act leaves U.S. crypto regulation to be shaped by agencies rather than Congress, with the SEC and CFTC moving forward on separate rulemaking tracks. The SEC issued a temporary conditional exemption allowing eligible venues to trade tokenized U.S. stocks via permissioned liquidity pools on public blockchains. The ...
Key Highlights Strategy founder Michael Saylor contends the Senate’s failure to advance the Clarity Act benefits the digital asset industry by avoiding restrictive legislative provisions. Despite the legislative setback, the SEC and CFTC are independently advancing rulemaking, including conditional relief for onchain trading of tokenized securities. The Clarity Act fell one vote short of cloture ...
Key Highlights The SEC is advancing regulatory initiatives independently while the Clarity Act remains stalled in Congress, per a Bitfinex announcement. Bitfinex warns the SEC’s proactive enforcement stance could heighten scrutiny on crypto exchanges and trading activities. Market participants face prolonged uncertainty as legislative clarity remains elusive, potentially driving volatility. SEC Accelerates Crypto Oversight Amid ...
Key Highlights The CFTC has submitted a two-part crypto regulation proposal (RIN 3038-AF80) to the White House OIRA, outlining frameworks for “Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions” and “Regulation Crypto Asset Markets.” The proposal introduces a new “crypto asset markets” exchange category for spot trading digital commodities like Bitcoin and XRP under CFTC oversight, though final rules ...
Key Highlights ECB President Christine Lagarde personally lobbied Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to block Binance’s MiCA license application, overriding Greece’s own finance minister and independent regulator. Binance’s application had cleared all technical reviews and the mandatory 40-day assessment period without objections before political intervention halted the process in mid-June. Binance has withdrawn its Greek ...
Bitcoin Price Rally Driven by US Debt Concerns, Not Crypto Regulation, Says Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan Bitcoin’s recent price surge appears to be fueled primarily by mounting concerns over the United States fiscal outlook rather than progress on cryptocurrency-specific legislation, according to analysis from Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan. Inverse Correlation Between Regulatory Odds ...
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan suggests Bitcoin’s price rally could persist while U.S. debt concerns remain unresolved, pointing to a divergence between crypto regulatory expectations and actual market performance. In a post on social platform X, Hougan shared a chart tracking the relationship between legislative odds and Bitcoin’s price action from July 1 to ...