Crypto News and Regulatory Updates: Key Developments Shaping the Industry
SEC agrees to pause its action against Binance, C.Z.: In a joint request, the SEC and Binance asked the Southern District of New York to allow a 60-day stay of the SEC’s action in light of the SEC’s formation of the Crypto Task Force, which “may impact and facilitate the potential resolution of this case.” In other words, the Commission is agreeing to stand down for the moment so that it doesn’t take a position in or continue with a litigation whose legal underpinnings might be undermined by the SEC’s forthcoming policy recommendations. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but this 180 from the SEC is remarkable: When the Commission announced the suit in 2023, it?said?that Binance and C.Z. had “engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of the law.” Now we’re looking at the first sign the SEC is open to resolving the action without a major penalty.
a16z’s Brian Quintenz gets the CFTC Chair nod: The current policy lead at a16z crypto and former CFTC Commissioner has been a vocal backer of passing crypto-specific regulations to encourage development. Current Acting Chair Caroline Pham, who is widely respected among crypto lawyers and across the industry, had been in the mix to stay on as permanent Chair. Quintenz has a strong reputation in his own right, and his relationship with Silicon Valley crypto leaders, who largely backed the President in his latest election bid, reportedly pushed his nomination over the top. It’s also worth noting that Quintenz is a director at Kalshi, the predictions market that prevailed last year in a CFTC action over its elections contracts. Donald Trump, Jr.?joined?Kalshi earlier this year as a strategic advisor. This is all to say: It’s as safe of a bet as ever that the CFTC will begin working closely with the industry on clear and workable regulations.
Uniswap's L2 goes live: The ‘Unichain’ will operate as a Stage 1 rollup and look to reduce gas fees and average 1-second block times. Devs — Uniswap says that Coinbase and Lido (along with Uniswap itself) are already building on the Unichain — can integrate stablecoins, use Uniswap v4’s webhooks to create custom logic, and deploy apps. Uniswap says that the chain will support native interoperability later this year and that the “soon”-to-be-released Unichain Validation Network will allow “anyone” to run a node and validate transactions.
Solana on-chain activity starts to cool after January highs: The meme-coin hub is seeing total transactions this month trending down roughly 14 percent after hitting an all-time high of more than 11.01 billion transactions (including 2 billion “non-vote” transactions) in January. Still, February’s current trends have it tracking towards the chain’s third-highest monthly activity since its inception. And on-chain activity aside, with Solana ETFs?looking closer to a reality, we may see price action lift SOL higher as more retail traders have access to the token. In all, the data suggests the chain is stickier than your average meme.
The IRS’ ‘broker rule’ gets one step closer to repeal: The Senate Finance Committee moved Sen. Ted Cruz’ petition to repeal the rule — which requires front-end DeFi trading interfaces, whom the IRS has classified as “brokers”, to file gain and loss reports and obtain know-your-customer information from users — to the full Senate calendar for a vote. That’s where it’s more than likely to meet its end given the Republican majority.
Continuing a trend, Trump's OCC chair nominee is crypto-friendly: The President tapped Jonathan Gould — the former Chief Legal Officer at Bitfury and current Biglaw partner — to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the primary monitor of large banking institutions. If Gould is confirmed, it will mean that all key financial regulators and executive departments — the Treasury Department, the Commerce Department, the SEC, the CFTC, the FDIC, and the OCC — will be led by crypto backers.
BitGo looking to go public this year: The custodian is in talks to launch an IPO as soon as the second half of the year. That puts it in the growing list of crypto firms — including Gemini, Bullish Global, and Circle — with aspirations to hit the public markets in 2025, leaving Wall Street?champing at the bit?to get in on the action. BitGo’s last raise — a $100 million offering in 2023 — valued it at $1.75 billion.
CFPB ordered to 'stand down', stop rule-making: In an email, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told the staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to “cease all supervision and examination activity” and suspend rule-making, investigations, and other core activities of the watchdog. The Bureau’s headquarters was also closed, with employees directed to work remotely. The CFPB has long drawn the ire of the TradFi industry. That might seem to make this news crypto-adjacent as best, but a more empowered (read: less regulated, more closed) traditional banking sector is a clear impetus for consumers to move to digital assets, the blockchain, and DeFi.