News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
A federal licensing regime for payment stablecoin issuers is law, but every implementing rule was still at the proposed stage when the statute's own rulemaking deadline passed, and the companion market-structure bill has yet to reach a Senate floor vote.
The GENIUS Act creates a federal licensing regime for payment stablecoin issuers, with 1:1 high-quality liquid reserves, monthly reserve attestations, redemption rights and parallel federal and state approval pathways. Every implementing rulemaking remained at the proposed stage as the statute's July 18, 2026 rulemaking deadline passed: Treasury has issued an advance notice (September 18, 2025) and proposals on certification of state regimes (April 1, 2026) and illicit finance (April 8, 2026); the OCC proposed its issuer framework on February 25, 2026; the FDIC proposed licensing rules on December 16, 2025 and capital and liquidity rules on April 7, 2026; the NCUA proposed rules on February 11 and May 18, 2026; and FinCEN proposed customer identification requirements on June 18, 2026. The companion CLARITY Act market-structure bill passed the House in 2025 and cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 on May 14, 2026, but a floor vote was still unscheduled in late July 2026. Separately, the OCC conditionally approved five national trust bank charters for digital-asset firms on December 12, 2025, and SEC staff issued a joint statement on tokenized securities on January 28, 2026 confirming that tokenization does not change the securities-law character of an instrument.
| Framework | Status | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act, Public Law 119-27) | Enacted | 18 July 2025 | Federal regime for payment stablecoin issuers: 1:1 reserves in cash, short-dated Treasuries and repo, monthly attestations, par redemption, no interest payments to holders, dual federal/state pathways with a $10bn state-regime threshold. |
| Treasury advance notice of proposed rulemaking on GENIUS Act implementation | Proposed | 18 September 2025 | Sought comment on the scope of the payment stablecoin definition, foreign issuer comparability and reserve composition ahead of formal proposals. |
| FDIC notice of proposed rulemaking on stablecoin issuer applications | Proposed | 16 December 2025 | Application and approval procedures for FDIC-supervised subsidiaries seeking to issue payment stablecoins. |
| NCUA notices of proposed rulemaking on credit union stablecoin issuance | Proposed | 11 February 2026 | First proposal February 11, 2026; a second NCUA proposal followed on May 18, 2026. Neither was finalised as of July 2026. |
| OCC notice of proposed rulemaking for federally qualified payment stablecoin issuers | Proposed | 25 February 2026 | Application, supervision and capital expectations for national banks and federal branches issuing payment stablecoins. |
| Treasury notice of proposed rulemaking on certification of state stablecoin regimes | Proposed | 1 April 2026 | Process by which state regimes are certified as substantially similar to the federal framework. |
| Treasury notice of proposed rulemaking on illicit finance and AML for stablecoin issuers | Proposed | 8 April 2026 | Sanctions compliance, blocking and lawful-order capability requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers. |
| FDIC notice of proposed rulemaking on capital, liquidity and risk management for stablecoin issuers | Proposed | 7 April 2026 | Prudential standards for FDIC-supervised issuing subsidiaries. |
| FinCEN notice of proposed rulemaking on customer identification programs for stablecoin issuers | Proposed | 18 June 2026 | Would extend CIP obligations to permitted payment stablecoin issuers. |
| Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act, H.R.3633) | Pending | 14 May 2026 | Passed the House in 2025; approved by the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 on May 14, 2026 and placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar (No. 423). Revised committee text circulated June 1, 2026; floor consideration unscheduled as of late July 2026. |
| SEC Division of Corporation Finance and Division of Trading and Markets staff statement on tokenized securities | Guidance | 28 January 2026 | Confirms that a tokenized security remains a security and that distribution, custody and settlement obligations follow the underlying instrument. |
| OCC conditional approvals of national trust bank charters for digital-asset firms | In force | 12 December 2025 | Five conditional approvals: First National Digital Currency Bank (Circle), Ripple National Trust Bank, BitGo Bank and Trust, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos Trust Company. Circle received final OCC approval on July 10, 2026. |
| NYDFS virtual currency regime (BitLicense, 23 NYCRR Part 200) and stablecoin guidance | In force | 8 June 2022 | State-level licensing and reserve/attestation guidance for USD-backed stablecoins issued from New York. |
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Cari said on 2 September 2026 that it had raised $32.5m in the first tranche of its initial external round, with every investor a bank, including all six Design Partner Banks and Glacier Bank. More than thirty banks have joined the network and more than forty are in discussion. The build reached a full product suite on 31 July and remains in pilot.
The Comptroller granted preliminary conditional approval on 2 September 2026 to charter OpenReserve Bank, National Association, a full-service insured national bank in Salt Lake City whose plan puts tokenized capabilities across all deposit products and a wholly-owned stablecoin subsidiary not yet applied for. Capital must reach $210m and the tier 1 leverage ratio 12 per cent for three years.
New Jersey's attorney general and its gaming enforcement director filed a petition for certiorari on 2 September 2026 in Flaherty and Davenport v. KalshiEX, asking whether Dodd-Frank preempted states from regulating sports bets offered on CFTC-registered markets. The office calls it the first such petition, and it follows opposite rulings in the Third and Ninth Circuits.
The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed Release No. 34-106246 on 1 September 2026, rewriting transfer agent rules not substantively updated since the early 1980s. The amended definition would permit a transfer agent to use a blockchain or other distributed ledger as its master securityholder file or part of it, and new Form TA-2 questions would count the issues where one does.
The CFTC announced on 28 August 2026 an order settling charges against Gabriel Perez for misappropriating nonpublic information from his White House employment to trade event contracts on words the President would use in speeches. He must disgorge $107,539.02 and pay a $65,000 penalty, discounted for cooperation, with a three-year trading ban. The release thanks KalshiEX for its assistance.
In KalshiEX, LLC v. Assad, No. 25-7516, decided 28 August 2026, a Ninth Circuit panel affirmed dissolution of Kalshi's injunction against Nevada's gaming regulators, holding the Commodity Exchange Act likely does not preempt state gaming law as applied to its sports event contracts. Nelson wrote, Bade joined, Lee concurred. It contradicts an April Third Circuit decision, creating a split.
The Securities and Exchange Commission's Amendments to the Custody Rules, RIN 3235-AN46, sits at the proposed rule stage with a notice targeted for October 2026, covering custody of advisory client and fund assets including crypto. The Block and CoinDesk reported on 26 August that it had gone to the White House for review; the agenda entry carries no date for that step.
A one-page determination effective 24 August 2026 extends section 1(a)(i) of Executive Order 13902 to the aviation, digital asset, gold, shipping and technology sectors of the Iranian economy, so any person anywhere operating in them may be designated. The same rule suspends five general licences indefinitely, including the one authorising noncommercial personal remittances to Iran.
The Southern District of New York entered supplemental consent orders against Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang on 18 August 2026, announced by the Commission on the 19th. No restitution, disgorgement or civil monetary penalty is imposed, in consideration of cooperation and an $11.02bn criminal forfeiture; the trading and registration bans run from the initial consent orders of 23 December 2022.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed illustrative examples for Topic 230 on 18 August 2026 setting out when a digital asset meets the existing definition of cash equivalents: an on-demand contractual redemption right, a direct right against the issuer, and segregated short-term liquid reserves held at least one for one. Comments close on 19 November 2026.
Securitize and Neuberger launched the Neuberger Securitize High Income Tokenized Fund across Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana and Sui on 18 August 2026. The fund's Form D, filed the same day, records a British Virgin Islands issuer relying on Rule 506(c) and section 3(c)(7), a $100,000 minimum investment, and $5.1m sold to two investors on the date of first sale.
Kalshi submitted perpetual futures on the MerQube US Large Cap Index and on copper for Commission review and approval under regulation 40.3(a) on 18 August 2026, rather than self-certifying them. The copper contract references the Pyth Network XCU/USD feed, and the filing tells the regulator that the network's staking and slashing safeguard is not currently operative.
The Commission proposed a tailored offering regime for crypto assets on 18 August 2026, five days after cancelling the meeting called to consider it. Two registration exemptions, a safe harbour perfected by the issuer's own certification on a new Form TR, and a definition of qualified purchaser that would preempt state registration requirements. Comments close sixty days after publication.
The Treasury issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on 17 August 2026 implementing section 3 of the GENIUS Act, published the next day at 91 FR 53368 with comments due by 19 October. It would create 12 CFR part 1523, read section 18(a) to let qualifying foreign issuers issue in the United States, and treat market making in an unlawful issuance as participation in it.
Ludlow Exchange, trading as Novig, filed a 45 page complaint in the Western District of Wisconsin on 14 August 2026 seeking a declaration that the Commodity Exchange Act preempts the state's gambling statutes. It is its fifth suit against a state officer since 4 August, and it follows a federal court in the same state refusing the CFTC the same relief on 28 July.
Corporate Decision #1385 of 14 August 2026 grants preliminary conditional approval to charter World Liberty Trust Company, National Association, which would issue and redeem USD1, hold its reserve and custody digital assets as a fiduciary, assuming the issuer's role from BitGo Bank & Trust. Seven conditions attach, including $20m of tier 1 capital.
The agenda of 13 August 2026 sets three sessions for 20 August, on crypto regulation, artificial intelligence and prediction markets. The prediction markets session lists the respective roles of federal and state authorities and recent state litigation among its potential topics. It names three officials, no members and no panellists.
A cancellation notice dated 13 August 2026 withdrew the open meeting called for 10 a.m. on 14 August, at which the Commission was to consider proposing a tailored offering regime for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets. No reason and no new date were given. The meeting agenda of 10 August names the item Regulation Crypto Assets.
The city filed two complaints in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City on 13 August 2026 under its Consumer Protection Ordinance. The Kalshi case also names Robinhood, Webull and Coinbase, pleading that each takes a fee alongside Kalshi on every event contract bought through its prediction markets hub, and seeks penalties, an injunction, disgorgement and restitution.
A King County Superior Court judge signed an amended preliminary injunction on 12 August 2026 requiring KalshiEX to stop offering event contracts on sports, elections, politics, entertainment, culture, tech and science and mentions in Washington, with geofencing through GeoComply by 2 September and $120,000 a day thereafter. It holds the Commodity Exchange Act does not preempt state gambling law.
The state's attorney general petitions for certiorari five days after the Ninth Circuit split from the Third, asking whether registering a market with the CFTC exempts what it lists from every state's gambling law.
Preliminary conditional approval for OpenReserve Bank, a full-service insured national bank in Salt Lake City, whose plan puts tokenized capabilities across all deposit products and a stablecoin subsidiary it has not yet applied for.
Cari, the shared tokenized deposit network built with six US regional banks, raises $32.5m entirely from banks. Its whole argument is that the token stays a bank liability inside deposit insurance rather than becoming a claim on a reserve pool.
A 421-page rewrite of rules untouched since the early 1980s would permit a transfer agent to keep its master securityholder file on a distributed ledger, and would start counting the issues where one does.
The Ninth Circuit holds that the Commodity Exchange Act likely does not preempt Nevada's gaming law, contradicting the Third Circuit and leaving the same contract lawful in one part of the country and not another.
The CFTC settles insider trading charges over event contracts on which phrases would appear in presidential speeches, and the trades were found by the exchange's own surveillance rather than by the regulator.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
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