Crypto news & regulatory update: March 14 – 28, 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 Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Crypto Task Force held its inaugural roundtable to discuss legal issues involved in classifying crypto assets under the federal securities laws. SEC Acting Chair Mark T. Uyeda and Commissioners Hester M. Peirce and Caroline A. Crenshaw provided opening remarks.
• The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance released a statement providing its views on certain “mining” activities on proof-of-work networks, and stating that the particular mining activities described in the statement do not involve the offer and sale of securities within the meaning of the federal securities laws. 
• President Trump addressed the Blockworks Digital Asset Conference and said that he had called on Congress to pass landmark legislation on stablecoins and market structure, and that he would make the United States the “undisputed bitcoin superpower and the crypto capital of the world.”

🌽 Commodity Futures Trading Commission

• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk announced that they are withdrawing two previous CFTC Staff Advisories. One of the advisories addressed the agency’s review of risks related to clearing digital assets, and the other addressed virtual currency derivative product listings.
• A federal court ordered Debiex, a purported digital asset platform, to pay a $221,466 civil monetary penalty and more than $2.2 million in restitution in connection with a scheme to use romance scam tactics to fraudulently misappropriate customer funds intended for digital asset commodity trading.

🦅 Congress

• House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) introduced the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE) Act, legislation to establish a framework for the issuance and operation of dollar-denominated payment stablecoins in the United States.
• The Senate voted 70-28 in favor of a Congressional Review Act joint resolution that would overturn the Internal Revenue Service’s decentralized finance broker reporting rule. President Trump must now sign the legislation in order for it to take effect.
• House Representatives Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Darren Soto (D-Fla.) reintroduced the Securities Clarity Act, which specifies that an asset sold as the object of an investment contract, i.e., an “investment contract asset,” is distinct from the securities offering in which it was first issued.
• House Representatives Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) and Jim Himes (D-Conn.) introduced the Financial Technology Protection Act, which would establish an interagency working group to collaborate with industry experts to publish a report on potential illicit uses of digital assets and other related emerging technologies, as well as strategies for preventing such uses. A previous version of the bill passed the House of Representatives last session.

⚖️ Department of Justice

• A Brooklyn podcaster was sentenced to 45 months in prison for a scheme in which he defrauded at least 17 victims by convincing them to loan him money for, or to invest in, multiple sham investments, including in a fictitious cryptocurrency “virtual wallet.”
• The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged a Los Angeles director and writer for engaging in a scheme to defraud a subscription video on-demand streaming service after he allegedly stole $11 million intended for a planned science fiction television show and instead used part of the funds to speculate on cryptocurrency.
• Financial services “market maker” firm Gotbit Consulting and its founder pleaded guilty to criminal charges relating to Gotbit’s fraudulent manipulation of cryptocurrency trading volume on behalf of client cryptocurrency companies. Gotbit agreed to cease all operations and forfeit approximately $23 million in seized cryptocurrency.
• The DOJ announced the disruption of an ongoing terrorist financing scheme through the seizure of approximately $201,400 in USDT held in wallets and accounts intended to benefit Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (Hamas).

🪙 Department of the Treasury

• The Department of the Treasury announced that it would “remove the economic sanctions against Tornado Cash” as reflected in a recent Treasury court filing.

🔐 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued new guidance for FDIC-supervised institutions engaging or seeking to engage in crypto-related activities, rescinding previous guidance and clarifying that FDIC-supervised institutions may engage in permissible crypto-related activities without receiving prior FDIC approval.
• Acting FDIC Chair Travis Hill wrote to House Representative and Chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), stating that the FDIC is “actively working on a new direction on digital assets policy,” including “providing a pathway for banks to engage in digital asset- and blockchain-related activities while still adhering to safety and soundness principles.”

💵 Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

• The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced that it will no longer examine its regulated institutions for reputation risk and is removing references to reputation risk from its Comptroller’s Handbook booklets and guidance issuances.

📈 Securities and Exchange Commission

• As mentioned in “tl;dr,” the SEC’s Crypto Task Force held its inaugural roundtable to discuss legal issues involved in classifying crypto assets under the federal securities laws.  SEC Acting Chair Mark T. Uyeda and Commissioners Hester M. Peirce and Caroline A. Crenshaw provided opening remarks.
• As mentioned in “tl;dr,” the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance released a statement providing its views on certain activities “mining” activities on proof-of-work networks, and stated that the particular mining activities described in the statement do not involve the offer and sale of securities within the meaning of the federal securities laws.
• The SEC’s Crypto Task Force announced that it will hold four more roundtables in its ongoing series discussing crypto asset regulation.
• SEC Acting Chair Mark T. Uyeda expressed concern about the SEC’s proposed safeguarding rule for investment advisers, which would extend custodial requirements to include crypto, and said that he had instructed the SEC staff to consider appropriate alternatives to the proposal, including its withdrawal.
• Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the SEC had agreed to drop its appeal of a district court ruling, which found, in part, that secondary sales of XRP over exchanges or through the use of trading algorithms did not constitute the unregistered offers and sales of investment contracts under the federal securities laws.
• Acting SEC Enforcement Director Sam Waldon and FINRA Head of Enforcement Bill St. Louis indicated that both agencies would still focus on crypto.
• Commissioner Hester M. Peirce discussed the SEC’s recent work relating to crypto, including its engagement with private sector parties and the SEC’s first crypto roundtable, as well as her thoughts on how Congress could mitigate regulatory jurisdictional overlap in regard to crypto. 
• The SEC filed joint stipulations to dismiss its cases against Consensys Software, Kraken, and Cumberland DRW.
• Web3 gaming platform Immutable announced that the SEC was closing its inquiry into the company and related parties.

🏛️ White House

• As mentioned in “tl;dr,” President Trump addressed the Blockworks Digital Asset Conference and said that he had called on Congress to pass landmark legislation on stablecoins and market structure, and that he would make the United States the “undisputed bitcoin superpower and the crypto capital of the world.”

🌍 State

🐎 Kentucky

• Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed House Bill 701 into law, which includes provisions that define terms relating to blockchain technology, allow individuals to use digital assets and self-hosted wallets, prohibit local zoning changes that discriminate against digital asset mining businesses, and other things.

🦋 Vermont / 🌴 South Carolina 

• Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation dropped its “show cause order” against crypto exchange Coinbase for allegedly offering unregistered securities to users through a staking service in light of the SEC’s dismissal of its enforcement action against Coinbase.  The South Carolina Attorney General’s securities division also dismissed its staking lawsuit against Coinbase.

🦬 Wyoming

• Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon announced that the Wyoming Stable Token Commission will begin testing of the Wyoming Stable Token, which would be the first fiat-backed and fully-reserved stable token issued by a public entity in the United States.

🌍 International

🇦🇺 Australia

• The Australian Treasury issued a statement on “Developing an Innovative Australian Digital Asset Industry,” which includes four primary elements: (1) a framework for Digital Asset Platforms, (2) a framework for payment stablecoins, (3) undertaking a review of Australia’s Enhanced Regulatory Sandbox, and (4) a suite of initiatives to investigate ways to safely unlock the potential benefits of digital asset technology across financial markets and the broader Australian economy.

🇪🇺 European Union

• European Central Bank Chief Economist Philip Lane said that international cards, apps or stablecoins expose Europe to risks of economic pressure and coercion, and that a digital euro is a promising solution to counter those risks and “ensure the euro area retains control over its financial future.”
• The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) published its 2025 threat assessment on serious and organized crime, which, in part, addresses AI and crypto.

🇩🇪 Germany

• German financial supervisory authority BaFin announced that it had identified “serious deficiencies” in Ethena GmbH’s USDe token authorization process and ordered immediately enforceable measures, and prohibited Ethena GmbH from further offering its USDe token to the public.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

• The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service has authorized charges against a National Crime Agency officer with 15 offenses relating to the alleged theft of 50 Bitcoin, worth nearly £60,000 in 2017, during an investigation into online organized crime.

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