Editor’s note: Our Regulatory Update series highlights the latest regulatory, legal, and policy happenings relevant to the crypto industry, curated by the a16z crypto regulatory team.
Regulatory news: August 11 – September 9, 2025
tl;dr
- The CFTC announced that it would start its next crypto sprint initiative for implementation of the recommendations in the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets report. It will begin stakeholder engagement on all other recommendations in the report relating to the CFTC.
- The Senate Banking Committee released its latest discussion draft of the Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2025, which would establish a digital asset market structure framework. Senate Democrats also released a framework for digital asset market structure legislation.
- SEC and CFTC staff issued a Joint Statement regarding the trading of certain spot crypto asset products, which clarifies staff’s views that SEC- and CFTC-registered exchanges are not prohibited from facilitating the trading of certain spot commodity products.
Federal
🌽 Commodity Futures Trading Commission
- As mentioned in “tl;dr,” the CFTC announced that it would start its next crypto sprint initiative for implementation of the recommendations in the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets report. It will begin stakeholder engagement on all other recommendations in the report relating to the CFTC.
- The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight issued an advisory regarding the foreign board of trade registration framework for non-U.S. entities legally organized and operating outside the United States that seek to provide persons physically located in the United States with direct market access to their trading platforms.
- The CFTC announced that it is enhancing its market surveillance and fraud detection capabilities by deploying Nasdaq’s suite of surveillance technology, which “delivers cross-market monitoring, analytics, and fraud detection across traditional and digital asset classes.”
- A federal judge found that EminiFX and its founder committed fraud and failed to register as a commodity pool operator and associated person, respectively, and ordered them to pay more than $228 million in restitution.
- Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham gave remarks to the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Blockchain Technologies.
🏛️ Congress
- As mentioned in “tl;dr,” the Senate Banking Committee released its latest discussion draft of the Responsible Financial Innovation Act of 2025, which would establish a digital asset market structure framework. Senate Democrats also released a framework for digital asset market structure legislation.
- House Representative David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) introduced the Cybercrime Marque and Reprisal Authorization Act of 2025, which would authorize the President to issue letters of marque and reprisal with respect to acts of aggression against the United States by a member of a criminal enterprise or any conspirator associated with an enterprise involved in cybercrimes, including crypto theft.
⚖️ Department of Justice
- Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew J. Galeotti said that “merely writing code, without ill-intent, is not a crime,” but that the DOJ would “continue to prosecute those who knowingly commit crimes — or who aid and abet the commission of crimes — including fraud, money laundering, and sanctions evasion.”
- Terraform Labs Co-Founder and CEO Do Kwon pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud and one count of committing wire fraud in connection with fraudulent schemes at Terraform.
- The DOJ charged the former CEO of a crypto casino startup with engaging in a scheme to defraud investors and prospective investors by making false and misleading statements regarding the use of investor funds and subsequently misappropriating those funds.
- Two Estonian nationals were sentenced to 16 months in prison (over the DOJ’s objections) for operating a crypto mining Ponzi scheme that defrauded hundreds of thousands of victims of more than $577 million.
- A California man was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $26 million in restitution to victims for his role in laundering more than $36.9 million in an international digital asset investment scam conspiracy that was carried out from scam centers in Cambodia.
- The former CEO and CFO of cryptocurrency lender Cred LLC were sentenced to 52 months and 36 months in prison, respectively, for wire fraud conspiracy.
- The DOJ unsealed six warrants authorizing the seizure of more than $2.8 million in cryptocurrency and other things from a man charged with conspiring to commit computer fraud and abuse, computer fraud and abuse, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
- The DOJ filed a forfeiture complaint against assets seized from wallet addresses on the TRON network that had contained a large portion of the proceeds from a $1.2 million crypto fraud scheme.
- The FBI issued a public service announcement providing red flag indicators and due diligence measures relating to fictitious law firms that have targeted cryptocurrency scam victims.
🛒 Department of Commerce
- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the “Department of Commerce is going to start issuing its statistics on the blockchain.”
💵 Department of the Treasury
- OFAC sanctioned a network of entities and individuals, including a Russian national who converted more than $600,000 of cryptocurrency into U.S. dollars, for supporting North Korean overseas IT worker operations.
- OFAC sanctioned a large network of scam centers across Southeast Asia, including those involved in virtual currency scams.
- FinCEN issued an Advisory on the use of Chinese money laundering networks by Mexico-based drug cartels, and a Financial Trend Analysis highlighting the scope and breadth of such network activity in the United States.
💰 Federal Reserve
- The Federal Reserve Board announced that it will sunset its novel activities supervision program and return to monitoring banks’ novel activities through the normal supervisory process.
- Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman said that “[b]ank regulators are taking important steps to create a framework for digital assets and the adoption of blockchain technology within the banking system.”
- Governor Christopher J. Waller said that he believes that stablecoins have the potential to “maintain and extend the role of the dollar internationally” and “to improve retail and cross-border payments.”
💵 Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
- The OCC terminated a 2022 consent order against Anchorage Digital Bank, which had previously found that Anchorage failed to adopt and implement a compliance program that adequately covered the required Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering program elements.
🏢 Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
- The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs released the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which includes potential SEC rule proposals related to the offer and sale of crypto assets.
📈 Securities and Exchange Commission
- As mentioned in “tl;dr,” SEC and CFTC staff issued a Joint Statement regarding the trading of certain spot crypto asset products, which clarifies staff’s views that SEC- and CFTC-registered exchanges are not prohibited from facilitating the trading of certain spot commodity products.
- The SEC and the CFTC issued a joint statement on regulatory harmonization opportunities and announced a joint roundtable.
- A federal judge ordered a cryptocurrency mining and trading company, its founders, and two other entities owned by one of the founders, to pay more than $46 million in disgorgement and civil penalties for defrauding more than 65,500 investors.
- Chairman Paul S. Atkins participated in a fireside chat about Project Crypto at SALT’s Wyoming Blockchain Symposium.
- SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce discussed the goals of the SEC, token launches, new ETFs, and other topics on the Empire podcast.
State
🌽 Illinois
- Governor JB Pritzker signed the Digital Assets and Consumer Protection Act, which gives the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation the authority to oversee certain crypto companies and exchanges. He also signed the Digital Asset Kiosk Act, which requires crypto ATM operators to register with state regulators, among other things.
🏛️Washington D.C.
- Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb sued Athena Bitcoin, Inc., a crypto ATM operator, for allegedly charging undisclosed fees on deposits that it knows are often the result of scams, and for failing to implement adequate anti-fraud measures.
🦬 Wyoming
- The Wyoming Stable Token Commission announced the mainnet launch of the Frontier Stable Token, making Wyoming the first public entity in the United States to issue a blockchain-based stablecoin.
International
🇦🇺 Australia
- The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre directed Binance Australia to appoint an external auditor after identifying “serious concerns” with the crypto exchange’s anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing controls.
💰 Bank for International Settlements
- The BIS published a bulletin outlining an approach to anti-money laundering compliance for cryptoassets.
- The BIS published a paper presenting the results of its 2024 survey on central bank digital currencies and crypto.
🇸🇻 El Salvador
- El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly passed a new Investment Banking Law, which creates a regulatory framework for certain financial institutions to offer Bitcoin and other digital-asset services to high-net worth individuals and institutional investors.
🇪🇺 European Union
- ECB President Christine Lagarde said that “gaps remain” in the EU’s MiCA Regulation with respect to stablecoins, and she called for new legislation to fill those gaps.
- ECB Executive Board Member Piero Cipollone provided an update on the digital euro to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament.
🇭🇰 Hong Kong
- Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission released a circular to all licensed virtual asset trading platforms on the custody of client virtual assets.
🚓 International Criminal Police Organization
- An Interpol-coordinated action across Africa led to the arrest of 1,209 cybercriminals who had targeted nearly 88,000 victims in various different schemes, including crypto investment schemes.
🇳🇱 The Netherlands
- The Dutch National Bank (DNB) imposed a fine of €2.25 million on crypto exchange OKX for operating in the country without registering with the DNB.
🇰🇷 South Korea
- South Korea’s Financial Services Commission sent letters to virtual asset exchanges requesting the suspension of new crypto lending until the agency establishes guidelines.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office issued new sanctions targeting the Kyrgyz financial sector and crypto networks that Russia has used to avoid Western sanctions.
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