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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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.
CFTC Letter 26-23 of 12 August 2026 sets out what a designated contract market may put in a market-maker or trading incentive programme and how to certify it. Unlimited rebates, guaranteed profits, secret discount codes, chance-based prizes and selectively faster market data are named as concerns, and existing programmes are to be reviewed by 14 September.
In its first results as a public company, filed on 12 August 2026, tokenization revenue fell 12 per cent to $7.84m while average tokenized assets under management reached a record $4.3bn and aggregate transaction volume rose 147 per cent to $5.3bn. Net loss was $21.7m, most of it fair-value marks, and fund services assets fell about 20 per cent.
The Division of Investment Management said on 12 August 2026 that it would not recommend enforcement action under section 17(f) and rule 17f-2 if the group's registered funds custody Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund shares with its affiliated transfer agent, on conditions requiring that agent to keep the power to freeze, migrate and restore the official record.
FlightAware filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice against all four Kalshi defendants on 11 August 2026, hours after Judge Arun Subramanian signed an order to show cause setting a temporary restraining order hearing for 13 August. No reason is given and no answer had been filed. Kalshi's self-certification still names FlightAware as the primary source agency.
The Commission found on 11 August 2026 that New York's enforcement action and its motion for a temporary restraining order are a major market disturbance under section 8a(9) of the Commodity Exchange Act, and directed KalshiEX to continue performing its functions as an exchange under the Act's core principles. No court had ruled on the restraining order.
Broadridge said on 10 August 2026 that its Distributed Ledger Repo platform processed an average of $365bn of repurchase agreements a day in July against tokenized collateral, totalling $8.0tn for the month, which it reported as a 28 per cent rise year on year. Its releases for March, April and June put the daily average at $354bn, $368bn and $357bn.
A Sunshine Act notice dated 10 August 2026 called an open meeting for 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Friday 14 August, at which the Commission will consider whether to issue a release proposing new rules creating a tailored offering regime for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets. The notice names no rule and no scope.
FlightAware filed in the Southern District of New York on 10 August 2026, alleging that Kalshi named it as the primary source agency for flight cancellation contracts, displayed its registered mark on the market pages and settled positions using data licensed for personal use only. Six counts are pleaded and a temporary restraining order is sought.
The CFTC's Division of Market Oversight and Market Participants Division wrote to regulated entities on 7 August 2026 to say that displaying event contracts in American plus-minus odds rather than in cents is likely to mislead participants about the nature of the transaction and risks breaching the prohibition on manipulative or deceptive devices. Receipt was to be confirmed by 31 August.
Wintermute said on 6 August 2026 that its affiliate Wintermute USA LLC had registered as a broker-dealer with the Securities and Exchange Commission and joined FINRA, as a proprietary trading firm able to trade equities and equity options, act as an authorised participant for exchange-traded products and self-clear digital asset securities for its own account. BrokerCheck dates the approval to the same day.
Judge Shalina D. Kumar of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan denied Coinbase Financial Markets a preliminary injunction on 6 August 2026, holding that sports event contracts are probably not swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act and that the Act preempts Michigan's gambling laws neither expressly nor by implication. The Gaming Control Board was dismissed on Eleventh Amendment grounds.
BlackRock, the DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation and Visa will run validators on Arc, Circle's layer-one network, ahead of a public mainnet set for 16 September 2026. BlackRock is expected to deploy BUIDL on it, and the DTCC to make it a supported blockchain for its tokenization service in the second half of 2027.
Circle reported second-quarter 2026 revenue and reserve income of $701m on 5 August, up 7% year on year, with reserve income of $668m up 5% as a 66 basis point fall in the reserve return rate offset 25% growth in average USDC in circulation. USDC in circulation was $73.3bn at the quarter end and net income from continuing operations $48m.
Wells Fargo said on 4 August 2026 that it would offer tokenized deposits to corporate and commercial clients, starting this autumn with a limited US dollar to British pound exchange and widening over 2027 to more clients, countries and currencies. The tokens run on the bank's own blockchain platform and the release says they carry the same deposit insurance eligibility as its existing deposit products.
Dinari opened trading in 724 tokenized US stocks, the S&P 500 among them, to eligible US investors on 4 August 2026, settled in USDC through self-custody wallets and running on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base and Avalanche. Dinari Inc is an SEC-registered transfer agent; its affiliate Dinari Securities LLC is a FINRA member broker-dealer. It opened platform licences to US financial institutions the same day.
The Comptroller granted preliminary conditional approval on 14 August to charter World Liberty Trust Company, which will issue and redeem USD1, hold its reserve and custody digital assets as a fiduciary.
The city filed two complaints in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City on 13 August under an ordinance of its own, and the Kalshi case also names Robinhood, Webull and Coinbase, because each takes a fee on every event contract sold through its…
A cancellation notice dated 13 August withdrew the open meeting called for 10 a.m. on the 14th, at which the Commission was to consider proposing a tailored offering regime for certain crypto assets. No new date was given.
The Commission published the agenda on 13 August for the first meeting of its Innovation Advisory Committee, on 20 August.
The Division of Investment Management said on 12 August that it would not recommend enforcement action if Franklin Templeton's registered funds put cash and securities lending collateral into its blockchain-recorded government money fund.
The largest tokenization platform filed its first quarterly results as a public company on 12 August.
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