Crypto news & regulatory update: February 28 – March 14, 2025

Editor’s note: Our Regulatory Updates series highlights the latest regulatory, legal, and policy happenings relevant to builders in web3 and crypto, as tracked and curated by the a16z crypto regulatory team. The roundups are based on recent news, guidance, legislation, and frameworks released by regulators, industry consortia, professional associations, banks, governments, and other entities as they impact the crypto industry (or applications) around the world. We also occasionally include select resources such as talks, posts, or other commentary — from us or from others — with the updates.

🧠 tl;dr

• The Senate voted 70-27 in favor of a Congressional Review Act joint resolution that would overturn the Internal Revenue Service’s decentralized finance broker reporting rule, and the House of Representatives voted 292-132 in favor of a matching resolution. For next steps, the House approval goes back to the Senate before it goes to the President for final approval.
• The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued an interpretive letter reaffirming that national banks can provide cryptocurrency custody services, hold stablecoin “reserves” as a service to bank customers, and use independent node verification networks and stablecoins to engage in and facilitate payment activities. The interpretive letter also rescinded the OCC’s previous position that required banks to receive supervisory pre-approval before engaging in these digital asset activities.
• The White House hosted its first-ever crypto summit, which included more than 20 industry leaders.

🦅 Congress

• As mentioned in “tl;dr,” the Senate voted 70-27 in favor of a Congressional Review Act joint resolution that would overturn the Internal Revenue Service’s decentralized finance broker reporting rule, and the House of Representatives voted 292-132 in favor of a matching resolution. For next steps, the House approval goes back to the Senate before it goes to the President for final approval.
• Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) introduced the Financial Integrity and Regulation Management Act, which would eliminate the ability for regulators to use reputational risk as a component of supervision. 
• Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and others introduced an update of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which would establish a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. The Senate Banking Committee voted 18-6 to advance that bill.
• Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) introduced the Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide (BITCOIN) Act, which would create a strategic bitcoin reserve.
• House Representative Sam Liccardo (D-Cal.) announced that he would introduce the Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement (MEME) Act, which would prohibit “the President, Vice President, Members of Congress, senior Executive Branch officials, and their spouses and dependent children from issuing, sponsoring, or endorsing a security, future, commodity, or digital asset.”
• House Representative French Hill (R-Ark.) and others wrote to SEC Acting Chair Mark T. Uyeda, encouraging the SEC to abandon several proposed rules issued by the Biden administration and to update the agency’s 2019 “Framework for Investment Contract Analysis of Digital Assets.”
• House Representatives Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) launched the formation of the Congressional Crypto Caucus, a bipartisan initiative with the goal of advancing crypto-friendly policies in Congress’s lower chamber.

⚖️ Department of Justice

• The Department of Justice announced a coordinated action with Germany and Finland to disrupt and take down the online infrastructure used to operate Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange that processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since April 2019 and allegedly facilitated money laundering and sanctions violations. The DOJ charged both administrators of the exchange with money laundering conspiracy, and also charged one of them with conspiracy to violate sanctions and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
• A New York man was found guilty in connection with a scheme to defraud investors of more than $7 million in money and cryptocurrency by holding himself out as a legitimate trader of cryptocurrency.
• A cryptocurrency entrepreneur was found guilty of wire fraud and money laundering in connection with the sale of a cryptocurrency called AML Bitcoin.
• The ex-girlfriend of a cryptocurrency founder agreed to plead guilty to filing a tax return that failed to report about $1.3 million in income for 2021. Her former boyfriend evaded taxes on a $36 million hacking scheme, and she admitted to participating in the ploy by heading shell companies and paying Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies to target his enemies.

🪙 Department of the Treasury

• The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the Iran-based head of Nemesis, an online darknet marketplace tied to fentanyl sales, as well as 49 virtual currency addresses that he used. 

💵 Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

• As mentioned in “tl;dr,” the OCC issued an interpretive letter reaffirming that national banks can provide cryptocurrency custody services, hold stablecoin “reserves” as a service to bank customers, and use independent node verification networks and stablecoins to engage in and facilitate payment activities. The interpretive letter also rescinded the OCC’s previous position that required banks to receive supervisory pre-approval before engaging in these digital asset activities. 

📈 Securities and Exchange Commission

• A federal judge dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) enforcement action against Richard Heart on the grounds that the defendant did not have sufficient contacts with the United States to give the court jurisdiction over claims against him. The SEC had alleged that the online entrepreneur had raised more than $1 billion through unregistered cryptocurrency offerings and defrauded investors out of $12.1 million to buy luxuries.
• The SEC announced the members of the Crypto Task Force staff, which will advise the Commission on matters related to crypto.
• The SEC announced that its Crypto Task Force will host a series of roundtables to discuss key areas of interest in the regulation of crypto assets.
• Blockchain-based asset management firm Superstate announced that it had registered its digital transfer agent, Superstate Services LLC, with the SEC.
• Cumberland DRW, Kraken, and counsel for cryptocurrency influencer Ian Balina announced that the SEC had agreed to drop its respective cases against each of them.
• Acting Chair Mark T. Uyeda discussed the SEC’s outstanding proposal to expand the definition of exchange and stated that, in his view, “it was a mistake for the Commission to link together regulation of the Treasury markets with a heavy-handed attempt to tamp down the crypto market.” He further stated that he had asked SEC staff for “options on abandoning that part of the proposal.”

🏛️ White House

• As mentioned in “tl;dr,” the White House hosted its first-ever crypto summit, which included more than 20 industry leaders.
• President Donald Trump signed an order establishing the strategic bitcoin reserve and a U.S. digital asset stockpile. 

🌍 State

🐻 California

• The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation announced that through its Crypto Scam Tracker and a new partnership with the California Department of Justice, the state has shut down more than 26 different crypto scam websites and uncovered $4.6 million in consumer losses.

🐝 Nebraska

• Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen signed the Controllable Electronic Record Fraud Prevention Act into law, which is intended to help combat fraud and protect users of cryptocurrency kiosks/ATMs.

🌍 International

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission added USDT and USDC to its list of approved cryptocurrencies for trading on digital asset exchanges.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

• In the UK’s first criminal sentencing for unregistered crypto activity, a UK man was sentenced to four years in prison for illegally operating a cryptocurrency ATM network, forgery, using false identity documents, and possessing criminal property.

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