All questions
Year in review
The past year has seen substantial changes in the approach towards digital assets by federal regulators, stemming in part from additional direction from Congress and a broader shift tied to evolving priorities with a new administration. The SEC has sought the dismissal of several major enforcement actions, issued additional non-binding guidance that certain digital assets (including certain stablecoins and memecoins) are not securities and initiated a task force to engage with the industry, public and other government regulators in a coordinated effort to promote greater regulatory clarity. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has also reshifted its enforcement priorities in the digital asset space, among other things directing agency personnel not to pursue violations of registration requirements absent evidence of intentional wrongdoing. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB),2 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC),3 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Federal Reserve)4 and Treasury5 have all also released new guidance or announced that they are considering whether to do so. Perhaps most significantly, Congress passed long-awaited legislation aimed at creating a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act of 2025.6
These developments, among others, are discussed in further detail in this chapter.
