Blockchain Legal Resource

On May 29, 2025, a bipartisan group of members in the House of Representatives from the Financial Services and Agriculture Committees introduced the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. The bill seeks to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States, with regulatory jurisdiction primarily split between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

On May 29, 2025, staff in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a statement on “Certain Protocol Staking Activities.” For certain “staking” activities on blockchain networks that use proof-of-stake (“PoS”) as a consensus mechanism (“PoS Networks”), the SEC staff is of the view that such activities do not involve the offer and sale of securities under the SEC’s Howey test.

On May 15, 2025, the staff of the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets issued new FAQs relating to crypto asset activities and distributed ledger technology. Additionally, the staffs of the Division of Trading and Markets and the Office of General Counsel of FINRA also withdrew their 2019 joint statement regarding broker-dealer custody of digital asset securities.

In prepared remarks at the SEC’s roundtable on tokenization held May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins provided a roadmap for the SEC’s future efforts involving crypto and digital assets. A “key priority,” Atkins declared, “will be to develop a rational regulatory framework for crypto asset markets that establishes clear rules of the road . . . while continuing to discourage bad actors from violating the law.”

In his first public statement since being sworn in on April 21, new SEC Chairman Paul Atkins delivered remarks on April 25 at the third roundtable of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force.

On April 8, 2025, Acting CFTC Chairman Caroline D. Pham issued Release Number 9063-25 regarding the digital asset industry. The release favorably cites a recent DOJ memorandum on the digital asset industry, and it instructs the CFTC staff to comply with President Trump’s executive orders regarding digital assets enforcement priorities and charging considerations.

On April 7, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum to all DOJ employees entitled “Ending Regulation By Prosecution.” The memorandum describes DOJ’s new priorities regarding prosecution of crimes involving digital assets and the broader cryptocurrency industry.

On April 4, 2025, Staff in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a public statement on stablecoins. The statement opines that the offer and sale of “covered stablecoins” do not involve the offer and sale of securities, and that persons involved in minting covered stablecoins do not need to register their offer and sale with the SEC.

Following President Trump’s Executive Order on Digital Assets, which instructed agencies to streamline and rationalize regulation of the digital asset space in a way that is technology-neutral, federal agencies have been responding. Below we summarize recent activities by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

On March 6, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order entitled “Establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile.” It is the latest effort in the President’s sweeping reforms concerning the digital asset industry.