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.
In particular, Acting Chairman Pham instructed the CFTC staff and the Director of Enforcement to adhere to the Justice Department’s policy on digital assets set forth in the Deputy Attorney General’s memorandum with respect to ongoing investigations, litigation including the agency’s litigating position and arguments, and other enforcement matters. To that end, she directed CFTC staff to not seek to charge regulatory violations in cases involving digital assets, including violations of registration requirements under the Commodity Exchange Act, unless there is evidence that the defendant knew of the licensing or registration requirement at issue and violated such a requirement willfully.
Release 9063-25 also highlights Acting Chairman Pham’s recent efforts to realign the Division of Enforcement; CFTC staff’s advisory to promote self-reporting, cooperation and remediation; and an initiative focused on resolving a backlog of noncompliance matters that do not involve customer harm or market abuse.
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On March 6, 2026, the Treasury Department published a report to Congress entitled “Innovative Technologies to Counter Illicit Finance Involving Digital Assets.” Required under the GENIUS Act, the report evaluates how financial institutions can use new technologies to detect and prevent illicit finance involving digital assets, and recommends regulatory and policy actions.
On November 10, 2025, Chairman John Boozman (R-MT) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee released a discussion draft of legislation regulating crypto markets in the United States. The draft is similar in several ways to the Clarity Act, which the House of Representatives passed in July 2025.
On July 30, 2025, the President’s Working Group on Digital Assets released its report entitled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology.” The report champions American innovation in crypto, and “endorses the notion that digital assets and blockchain technologies can revolutionize not just America’s financial system, but systems of ownership and governance economy-wide.”
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.
The Hunton Blockchain Blog features opinions and legal analysis as we follow the development and use of distributed ledger technology known as the blockchain.
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