The crypto industry is frequently finding bankers involved in its top-priority regulatory efforts, and this time, a coalition of bank trade associations has asked the U.S. Department of the Treasury to extend the window in which the public can weigh in on implementation of last year’s Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.

In a letter sent this week to the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., bankers in the U.S. are asking that three different GENIUS Act rule proposals get extended comment periods, at least 60 days after another rule effort (at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) is finished. The OCC’s push to implement its rule for policing stablecoin issuers is meaningful to the outcome of other rules being pursued at the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), plus a related rulemaking at the FDIC.

All the efforts are “directly contingent on the OCC’s final framework,” the bankers contend. The collective efforts, in addition to regulatory proposals that haven’t yet emerged from the Federal Reserve and other agencies, “represent a body of regulatory work of extraordinary scope and complexity.”

The banking organizations, including the American Bankers Association and the Bank Policy Institute, said that their comments “will necessarily be more comprehensive, and therefore more useful to the agencies, if we have sufficient time to evaluate the proposed rules together and to evaluate each against the finalized OCC framework.”

The GENIUS Act is meant to be in place by 2027, though it’s not unusual for federal agencies to grant extensions of comment periods on complex rules. The Treasury Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the bank industry’s request.

The same bankers are also embroiled in a stablecoin-related debate with the crypto industry that’s so far managed to delay the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act for months, and potentially jeopardize its potential for becoming law this year.

Read More: U.S. Treasury proposes demands that stablecoin firms be set to police bad transactions

April appears to be a lost cause for the crypto Clarity Act, but a U.S. Senate committee hearing sometime in May could keep the critical market structure legislation alive, as long as it can reach a final vote of the overall Senate by July, according to lobbyists and a lawmaker aide focusing on the market structure bill’s sluggish progress.

The legislative calendar is running out of room for this year, but a Senate aide told CoinDesk that a potential new delay of a couple of weeks — allowing Republican Senator Thom Tillis to finish discussions with bankers over stablecoin-yield concerns — is not yet pushing this work past the point of no return. The aide also said that earlier negotiations over decentralized finance (DeFi) protections are effectively settled, leaving few other impediments in the way of a committee approval.

One of the chief problems the crypto industry faces (if it can leap the stubborn hurdle of the banking sector’s objections about stablecoin rewards) is that the Senate Banking Committee hearing that the bill needs to clear would be only a first step of many.

Here’s the scheduling maelstrom the effort is now circling: The Senate will essentially flee Washington in August and be in election mode until the November congressional midterms arrive. It’s currently scheduled for about a dozen weeks of DC work before the elections, and it has some pressing matters on its plate during that time, including the funding battle over the Department of Homeland Security, clashes over the Iran war, the debate on voter identification and addressing nominations such as President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh.

If the bill manages to finally get signoff from the Senate Banking Committee, the text needs to be merged with the version that passed the Senate Agriculture Committee. That merger work is the timing cushion that these current delays are eating into, the aide said.

The final legislation would likely be revised further as lawmakers add their final compromise on an ethics piece in which Democrats wanted to limit senior government officials (most pointedly President Trump) from profiting off of crypto interests. The aide said that language is now circulating back and forth on that point but that it won’t be in the banking panel’s version and would be added later. If they can get past that dispute and another demand about appointing a full slate of commissioners to oversee markets regulation, the bill may win enough Democratic support to pass.

Then the House would need to approve it again, because it’s very different from the version that chamber already advanced last year. But that would be expected to go quickly, as long as further disagreements don’t arise.

The last step, Trump’s signature, is expected to be the easiest, though he inserted some uncertainty in March when he said he wouldn’t sign any bill until he gets legislation approved that would demand voters prove their citizenship before they can cast ballots.

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, if approved, would become the second major crypto bill to become law, joining last year’s Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. But it’s an unresolved stablecoin matter from the GENIUS Act that has delayed progress on the Clarity Act since the start of the year, as bank lobbyists have drawn enough support from senators to back their worry that stablecoin rewards programs could be close enough to deposit yield that it jeopardizes the banks’ business model.

The debate — far afield from the central aims of the Clarity Act — has raged through White House interventions and tough rhetoric from crypto insiders. Coinbase, which stands to take a substantial hit if stablecoin reward programs are curtailed, has been at the forefront, and Chief Legal Office Paul Grewal posted Tuesday on social media site X with another push.

“You can’t be for CLARITY and against rewards,” he wrote. “It’s one or the other. Time to choose.”

Though key Senate negotiators had recently said they had an “agreement in principle” to move forward with a compromise, Republican Senator Tillis told reporters that earlier hopes for April progress was likely slipping into May. The White House has leaned into the crypto position on allowing some rewards that don’t look like interest on core bank deposits.

“It’s hard to explain any further lobbying by banks on this issue as motivated by anything other than greed or ignorance,” Patrick Witt, a top crypto adviser in Trump’s White House, said in how own recent posting on X. “Move on.”

In the current version, insiders say that the compromise has hovered steadily around an approach that would ban payment of yield on any product that looks or acts like insurance on a deposit, but it would still let firms such as Coinbase structure rewards programs that would be more akin to credit-card incentives. But the lawmakers have been shy about releasing text that could spark further negotiation drama, after letting both crypto and banking industry representatives review language last month.

“We’re too close to let this effort fail,” said Cody Carbone, CEO of the Digital Chamber, in a statement to CoinDesk. “A markup must happen to move this forward. It’s been three months since it was initially scheduled, and given the progress on all issues, especially the bipartisan stablecoin yield agreement, now is the time.”

Every day that passes without progress marks a decline in the odds for eventual Clarity Act success. The very next action should be the scheduling of the markup hearing and the sharing of the long-awaited bill text that the negotiators have been wrestling over.

“In our view, the odds of CLARITY being signed into law in 2026 are roughly 50-50, and possibly lower,” according to a research note that crypto investment firm Galaxy is planning on publishing this week. “The uncertainty stems not from any single issue but from the sheer number of unresolved questions that must be settled in sequence under severe time pressure.”

In other words, a single further blowup among the negotiators could be a fatal delay, though the period after the November elections could offer a final low-odds, last-ditch opening. The so-called “lame duck” session of Congress at the end of the year can be a period in which the outgoing Congress can still act, and more than one crypto insider has suggested that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a hypothetically derailed Clarity Act could reappear then.

While crypto lobbyists are desperate for immediate action on the legislation, the industry is playing the long game on the political front. Crypto PACs have already devoted millions of dollars to keep adding to the list of its friends in Congress from both parties. The sector’s leading campaign-finance arm, Fairshake, is careful to back members of both parties, and many of their political picks will be joining next year’s Congress. If the Clarity Act is law by then, there are likely to be other pressing legislative matters for the industry, potentially including a tax overhaul and the establishment of a federal stockpile of bitcoin BTC$77,494.84.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is leaning into artificial intelligence and automation as it faces massive new oversight responsibilities, according to congressional testimony from Chairman Mike Selig, even as his agency’s workforce has declined significantly under the administration of President Donald Trump.

About a quarter of the CFTC’s staff has left since 2025, under Trump’s demands that the federal workforce be cut significantly, according to agency records. But the CFTC is also being called upon to regulate new and rapidly growing arenas for cryptocurrency and the prediction markets.

“Tools such as AI are going to be very helpful in surveilling and bringing the investigations, and we’re incorporating that into various workflows,” Selig told lawmakers of the House Agriculture Committee at a Thursday hearing, citing widespread use of Microsoft’s Copilot AI tool as one productivity aid. When asked about the staff declines at his agency, Selig said, “we are running more efficiently and effectively.”

“We’re putting a lot on your plate with digital assets, and we’re obviously going down this path with prediction markets,” noted committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson. He sought an assurance from the CFTC chief that if he finds himself “in a situation where you know the need for additional qualified staff emerges” that he’ll ask the panel for help.

“Absolutely,” Selig responded.

He asserted that proper enforcement of the markets is a “top priority” of his, though the CFTC budget request for next year asked for only three more enforcement staff to make 108 people — still about 23% shy of the 140 the division had in 2025.

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that the Senate continues to work on would elevate the CFTC into a central role over non-securities crypto trading, which would include transactions in leading assets such as bitcoin BTC$74,557.55 and Ethereum’s ether (ETH). The agency is also claiming a dominant legal jurisdiction over the prediction markets such as at leading firms Polymarket and Kalshi, which are rocketing from levels measured in the millions of dollars a year ago to multiple billions now.

Selig’s Democratic predecessor, former Chairman Rostin Behnam, had routinely argued that the agency would need more people to oversee crypto and didn’t have the resources to police the world as prediction markets spread in depth and in a virtually unlimited breadth of contract topics. During Selig’s brief tenure, the prediction markets have erupted in accusations of insider trading, a few of which have been addressed by the firms themselves. But the markets have drawn heavy scrutiny on certain trades around U.S. military actions and government statements that suggest small numbers of anonymous traders made significant money on correct bets, suggesting the potential for insider trading from people with government insight.

The chairman acknowledged “numerous investigations ongoing” in prediction markets, though he wouldn’t quantify a number or discuss their focus. He said the regulated platforms are the first line of defense against insider trading, fraud and market manipulation in the hundreds of new markets (binary event questions) that emerge every day on the platforms, while the CFTC itself is a second line of defense.

“We regularly reject contracts,” Selig noted. “We’re actively reviewing what’s out there,” he said, adding that his agency has a “zero tolerance” policy for illicit market activity.

“Anyone who engages in that behavior will face the full force of the law,” he said.

But Representative Angie Craig, the committee’s top Democrat, argued that “the agency’s workforce is stretched too thin,” especially considering the agency’s role as the “primary regulator of two of the fastest growing and most volatile markets.”

“We must give the CFTC the staff, the funding and the clear statutory authority it needs to do its job,” Craig said.

The personnel declines at the regulator includes the commission itself, which is supposed to have five members under the law — including two commissioners from the minority party — but which has been left by the White House as a solitary posting of Selig. The chairman was questioned repeatedly about that during the Thursday oversight hearing, including whether he’d proceed with major rules as a one-person commission.

“We cannot for the sake of the American people slow down our rulemaking,” he said, suggesting he’ll move alone on new regulations. The CFTC is pursuing a preliminary rule process to set up guardrails for U.S. prediction markets, and Selig has also pushed policy initiatives in crypto.

Thompson said he and Craig will be sending a letter to the White House to “encourage them to promptly fill those commissioner positions” with CFTC nominees from both parties.

Read More: CFTC sues Illinois, Arizona, Connecticut over states’ sports prediction market efforts

UPDATE (April 16, 2022, 18:07 UTC): Adds plan for committee letter to White House on commission vacancies.

On Thursday, Congress took a small but significant step toward ensuring America remains the best place in the world to build. Bipartisan legislation – the Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development Act of 2026 – would protect software developers from being swept up under criminal code Section 1960, a statute designed for money laundering, not innovation. For builders working in good faith on open-source software, that legal gray zone has cast a chill on American competitiveness.

It is one bill. But the principle it embodies reaches further than any single piece of legislation – and it arrives at a pivotal moment.

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary this July, it is tempting to look backward to commemorate milestones and celebrate triumphs. But America’s most consequential moments have rarely come from preservation alone. They have come from renewal: building new systems that allowed the country to adapt to a changing world.

Every American century has been defined not just by ideals, but by infrastructure. Canals and railroads powered industrial expansion. Telecommunications connected a continental economy. The internet reshaped commerce, culture and capital markets. Each era rewarded those willing to build.

Today, the next layer of infrastructure is taking shape in code.

Software developers are the architects of modern economic systems. They shape how money moves, how markets function and how people coordinate on a global scale. Unlike the builders of past eras, many are globally distributed and highly mobile – choosing where to work and innovate based on clarity, opportunity and regulatory environment. Open-source development allows anyone, anywhere, to contribute foundational code. That work has produced billions of lines of software that are collectively maintained and power modern commerce and coordination.

At the same time, the nature of financial infrastructure itself is evolving. Where previous generations built physical rails, today’s builders are creating digital rails – protocols that move value, establish trust and operate at internet speed. These layers increasingly underpin payments, financial services, identity and ownership.

One illustration of this transformation is the growth of the developer ecosystem building on Solana. According to the most recent Electric Capital Developer Report, Solana was the leading ecosystem for new developers in 2024, growing 84% year over year. The Solana ecosystem shows how fast, low-cost, open infrastructure attracts and retains talent willing to invest in solving real problems – from payments and decentralized finance to identity and decentralized applications at scale.

This is not about hype or token prices. It’s about where infrastructure gets deployed, and whether the builders of tomorrow, who write the code that defines digital markets, feel a country welcomes innovation or obstructs it.

Globally, governments are recognizing this reality. Several jurisdictions have moved forward with clear frameworks for digital assets and blockchain-based systems, providing developers and entrepreneurs with predictability. This sends a signal: building is welcome here.

In the United States, there are encouraging signs of progress beyond Thursday’s bill. Under the leadership of SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, the Commission is shifting from a posture defined primarily by enforcement toward one focused on engagement, clarity and constructive rulemaking.

Developers and market participants do not expect the absence of regulation – they expect rules that are understandable, durable and aligned with how modern technology actually functions. Recent efforts to engage industry, solicit public input and distinguish bad actors from good-faith builders are an important step toward restoring confidence that the United States intends to lead, not lag, in the development of digital financial infrastructure.

We have seen this dynamic before. The early days of railroads, aviation and the internet were marked by experimentation and ambiguity. Regulation followed innovation, not the other way around. That sequence was not a flaw; it was a feature of leadership. It allowed the United States to set global standards rather than inherit them.

As we look toward America’s next 250 years, the same principle applies. Protecting the freedom to build – especially in open, general-purpose technologies – is a core American value. Writing code, absent intent to harm, is a form of expression and exploration. A nation founded on free speech and enterprise should be cautious about criminalizing innovation simply because it is new.

This moment is also an opportunity to renew American leadership in capital markets. Blockchain-based systems enable faster settlement, broader participation and more resilient market infrastructure – an evolution some have termed “internet capital markets.” These ideas are not about overnight disruption, but about upgrading the rails beneath existing institutions so they remain globally competitive.

The question before us is not whether these technologies will shape the global economy. They already are. The question is whether the United States will lead its development – or watch as talent, standards, and capital consolidate elsewhere.

America’s founders did not assume their experiment would succeed forever. They designed it so future generations could improve it. As we celebrate our nation’s 250th year, we face a similar responsibility: not to preserve the past unchanged, but to ensure that future builders still see America as the best place in the world to build.

The next American century will be written in code. The choice we make now determines where that code gets written.

A US federal court ordered William Koo Ichioka to pay $31 million in restitution and $5 million in monetary penalty
The New York resident was charged and ordered to pay a total of $36 million for defrauding victims in a forex and crypto scheme

A New York man will pay $36 million for defrauding victims in a forex and crypto scheme.

In a press release on September 20, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said William Koo Ichioka, formerly of San Francisco, will pay $31 million in restitution to the victims of his fraudulent scheme and $5 million in civil monetary penalty.

The fine was handed by Judge Vince Chhabria of the US District Court for the Northern District of California in an order given on September 19.

CFTC filed charges against Ichioka in June 2023

The CFTC filed a civil enforcement action against Ichioka in June 2023. The charges involved the fraudulent soliciting and stealing of over $21 million from more than 100 commodity pool participants. Ichioka admitted to the charges and agreed to an order of judgment.

Allegations against Ichioka related to a scheme from 2018 that lied to unsuspecting participants in investment funds.

The individual claimed investors would get a 10% return on their funds every 30 days. However, this didn’t happen and Ichioka stole funds from victims with his own money, using these funds on personal expenses such as rent, jewelry, and luxury vehicles.

“To conceal his fraudulent activity, Ichioka overstated the value of assets he held by generating false financial documents and presenting false account statements to participants,” the CFTC noted in the press release.

Parallel criminal case

Ichioka also pleaded guilty to charges filed by the Department of Justice in June 2023, with the case running parallel to the CFTC complaint. Charges included wire fraud, false tax returns, and commodities fraud. For the five counts, the court sentenced Ichioka to 48 months in prison.

He also received a five year supervised release sentence. The court imposed a $5 million fine and $31,330,715.86 in restitution.

On August 14, 2023, the court ordered a permanent injunction and prohibited Ichioka from any future violations. He was also barred from trading in any CFTC regulated markets or registering with the regulator.

According to the CFTC, that order and the monetary penalty mark the end of CFTC’s enforcement action against the New York resident.

The AMF has blacklisted Bybit since May 2022 due to regulatory infractions.
French investors urged to prepare for potential service halt.
Besides France, Bybit faces global scrutiny and it has already pulled out of Canada and UK.

The French Securities Regulator, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), has issued a renewed cautionary notice to investors regarding the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit.

The warning stems from Bybit’s non-compliance with French regulations, specifically its failure to register as a digital asset service provider (DASP), rendering its operations illegal in France.

Possible abrupt exit of Bybit from France

Investors are urged to exercise vigilance and prepare for the potential abrupt cessation of Bybit’s services in France.

The AMF emphasizes that it retains the authority, as per the Monetary and Financial Code, to pursue legal action, including blocking Bybit’s website.

Furthermore, retail investors are advised to take preemptive measures to ensure continued access to their assets, should the platform become inaccessible.

This cautionary stance mirrors similar regulatory actions taken against Bybit globally. In March, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) categorized Bybit as an unlicensed exchange and added it to its list of suspicious platforms. This move by the SFC reflects concerns regarding Bybit’s lack of compliance with licensing requirements.

Bybit’s regulatory woes

Although Bybit has applied for licenses in countries like Hong Kong, its history of regulatory challenges extends beyond France. Last year, the exchange withdrew from both Canada and the United Kingdom, citing regulatory pressures. These exits underscore the significant regulatory hurdles Bybit faces in various jurisdictions.

For French investors, the AMF’s warning serves as a critical reminder to prioritize regulatory compliance and due diligence when engaging with cryptocurrency exchanges.

Bybit’s illegal operation in France raises concerns about investor protection, highlighting the importance of adhering to regulatory frameworks.

In light of these developments, French investors are advised to exercise caution and consider alternative platforms that comply with local regulations.

Additionally, staying informed about regulatory updates and heeding warnings from financial authorities can help mitigate risks associated with unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges like Bybit.

60-38 in the Senate voted in favour of overturning the SEC rule.
Bipartisan support signals a potential shift in crypto regulation.
Presidential veto possible.

In a landmark decision, the US Senate has voted to overturn a key Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule that barred regulated financial firms from holding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The legislation, known as H.J. Res. 109, previously passed in the US House with bipartisan support and the Senate’s support signals a potential shift in the regulatory landscape for digital assets in the United States.

Bipartisan support for H.J. Res. 109 reversal

The decision to overturn the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 121 garnered significant bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate.

The rule, which had been in effect for two years, prohibited regulated financial institutions from holding cryptocurrencies.

However, lawmakers have moved to invalidate this restrictive regulation with a vote of 60-38 in the Senate and a 228–182 vote in the House.

Supporters of the legislation argue that allowing regulated firms to hold cryptocurrencies will provide consumers with more options and opportunities in the rapidly evolving digital asset market. They contend that regulated institutions are well-equipped to handle the risks associated with cryptocurrency custody, given their existing compliance frameworks and security protocols.

Potential presidential veto

After the overwhelming support for overturning the SEC rule in Congress, the legislation now faces its final test on the desk of US President Joe Biden.

While the White House has indicated that the measure may be vetoed, citing concerns about disrupting the SEC’s work to protect investors in crypto-asset markets, proponents remain hopeful that Biden will recognize the importance of allowing regulated firms to engage in cryptocurrency custody.

Critics of the SEC’s rule argue that it stifles innovation and hampers the ability of financial institutions to meet the growing demand for cryptocurrency services. They point to the recent approval of spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) by the SEC as evidence of the increasing mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies and the need for regulatory flexibility in this rapidly evolving space.

Senate decision met with enthusiasm

The decision to overturn the SEC rule has been met with enthusiasm by industry stakeholders, who see it as a positive step towards greater institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies. Many believe that allowing regulated financial firms to hold cryptocurrencies will help to legitimize the asset class and attract more institutional investors.

However, some industry experts caution that regulatory clarity is still needed to ensure the long-term stability and growth of the cryptocurrency market. They emphasize the importance of striking a balance between innovation and investor protection to foster a healthy and sustainable ecosystem for digital assets.