Blockchain+ Bi-Weekly—CFTC/SEC Move Forward with Crypto-Focused Initiatives and Important No-Action Relief

Even as Congress remains preoccupied with debates over federal funding and digital asset market structure legislation looks increasingly uncertain in this session, there has still been much to report, as administrative agencies and private sector efforts dominated recent crypto law headlines. The SEC issued what may be its most significant no-action relief for token projects to date, while Senate Democrats advanced their own initiatives on digital asset market structure. At the same time, the SEC and CFTC continued to roll out new initiatives, despite the CFTC operating with only an acting commissioner and no permanent Chair, including SEC Chair Atkins promising a new initiative called Project Crypto aimed at modernizing securities regulation for digital assets. Rounding out the developments, several crypto companies pushed forward with IPOs, further integrating into the traditional financial sector.

Detailed breakdowns of these developments, their implications for businesses going forward, and a few other updates on crypto-law topics are discussed below.

SEC and CFTC Hold Joint Roundtable Discussions on Regulatory Harmonization Efforts: Sept. 29, 2025

Background: The SEC and CFTC held a series of roundtable discussions between various financial industry representatives to discuss how to encourage coordination between the agencies, especially regarding innovative products and services like those enabled through blockchain technologies. The Commissioners’ various statements (including by SEC Chair Atkins, CFTC Acting-Chair Pham, SEC Commissioner Peirce, and SEC Commissioner Uyeda) all emphasized a need to put regulatory missions over regulatory turf wars to ease compliance obligations on market participants and better serve the public. Despite the lack of permanent leadership at the CFTC and market structure legislation, these agencies are moving forward, consistent with the advice of the President’s Working Group Report from July of this year.

Analysis: This was one of the more productive conversations from these roundtables, as the old guard and new guard were often on panels together to discuss possible approaches for the agencies to address new technologies without building regulatory barricades. Views on exemptions and regulatory sandboxes seemed largely dictated by whether the speaker represented an old-guard institution (largely anti-exemptions) or a new entry (largely pro-exemptions). Also, it is worth noting the humor of Commissioner Peirce’s speech, including the line: “[f]or sports-related complaints, please call the CFTC.” The line was both hilarious and apt for the crowd, which included predictive market CEOs who are currently fighting with regulators on whether sports prediction markets should be governed by the CFTC, state gaming regulators or both.

SEC Issues DePIN Token No-Action Relief: Sept. 29, 2025

Background: The SEC has issued No-Action relief to decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) developer DoubleZero regarding the planned distribution and use cases for a planned “2Z” token. This is the first formal No-Action relief given to a digital asset project since the IMVU No-Action Letter from late 2020. While not binding for any other project, this gives a framework for what the SEC currently considers to be outside of the scope of federal securities laws with respect to the distribution of tokens in a DePIN project. Importantly, it was noted that “2Z is specifically designed to exclude any passive value accrual mechanisms—it does not incorporate dividends, a deflationary token supply, programmatic buybacks, or any similar functionality.”  

Analysis: The requested/granted relief is limited to “Programmatic Transfers” of 2Z to “Network Providers” and “Resource Providers” as compensation for their own services, not prior transactions or speculative sales (which did occur, but under securities laws exemptions). So, this isn’t a far leap, as it is seemingly affirming other informal guidance that the mere existence of transferability or a secondary/speculative market doesn’t make a token itself a security. But the inbound letter does partially rely on a consumptive use/utility argument a la United Housing v. Forman, which had largely been rejected by courts in prior token cases like LBRY. This was a huge effort by both agency staff and the project’s team and lawyers to get this done, and shows a real willingness at the current SEC to understand the underlying technology and provide guidance consistent with that technology, which is great to see.

Senate Democrats Release Market Structure Framework: Sept. 19, 2025

Background: Senate Democrats have responded to the Senate Banking Committee majority’s revised market structure bill with their own set of policies and framework that the minority will seek to have addressed in any eventual final legislation. There is a plan to have a market structure legislation markup in Senate Banking by the end of October or early November, so that leaves very little time for Senate Democrats to vet language proposals with industry participants before seeking changes to the existing market structure draft. That said, the Senate Agriculture Committee (which has oversight authority over the CFTC) still hasn’t released their companion bill, and nothing will be finalized until that is done as well.

Analysis: It appears that Senate Democrats are not far away from Senate Republicans on most issues, making passage of a market structure bill in the Senate more likely, although some sticking points remain. These include whether there should be state law preemption; the level of government oversight over decentralized finance software; and adding additional prohibitions against stablecoin treasury yields being passed to consumers. Even if the Senate ultimately can pass a market structure bill, it appears there will still be huge differences between the Senate’s vision of market structure and the CLARITY Act market structure bill that already passed in the House.    

SEC Approves Rule Proposal for Generic Listing Standards for ETFs: Sept. 17, 2025

Background: The SEC has granted requests for accelerated approval of certain proposed rule changes that would make it easier to list Commodity-Based Trust Shares without needing to apply for proposed rule changes with the SEC each time. This approval is significant for crypto, as there are dozens of crypto ETFs awaiting the SEC’s sign-off, and this approval will accelerate that process both for pending applications and similar applications going forward. There is expected to be a wave of spot crypto ETF launches in the coming weeks and months as a result of this move from the SEC.

Analysis: This topic was one of the various topics included in Commissioner Peirce’s Feb. 21, 2025, statement soliciting public input on regulatory issues related to blockchain technology and crypto assets. The Digital Chamber (including follow-up comments specific to the proposal) and many others submitted comments on those ETF topics, so it’s great to see that advocacy work in action and getting results. The SEC also approved trading for a fund that holds five cryptocurrencies last week. Next up would be allowing staking in those products or allowing ETFs to hold liquid staking tokens, which would effectively do the same thing.

Briefly Noted:

Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill: The BITCOIN Act, which would enable budget-neutral ways for the U.S. government to buy Bitcoin, got some momentum, as industry leaders went to D.C. to advocate for it. If this is an important issue to you, the Digital Chamber has set up an easy way to contact your representatives and let them know.

Request for Comment on GENIUS Act: Department of Treasury has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, seeking comments on the implementation of the GENIUS Act. Good to see them moving forward here, but there is a lot of work to be done on getting the GENIUS Act fully implemented.

CFTC Chair Kerfuffle: Brian Quintenz, who was initially nominated by President Trump to be the next chair of the CFTC, but who has had his confirmation hearing continuously postponed, publicly released a series of messages of why he believes his confirmation has been so delayed. His nomination has since been formally retracted. There is still not a confirmed CFTC Chair, or even a quorum of commissioners, and this power void is not expected to be filled soon. With initiatives like allowing stablecoin collateral for derivatives traders moving forward, eventually, this power vacuum will reach a breaking point.

Commissioner Peirce Statement: Commissioner Peirce gave a statement titled, “Bees, Ts, and NFTs: Remarks at the Coin Center Dinner,” which is a must-read if only for its uniqueness. I personally took to heart the ending, though: “I especially appreciate the members of the crypto community who put their noses to the grindstone to serve other people—even when doing so requires them to take career, financial, legal, and reputational risk.”

SEC Chair Speech Further Advocates “Super-App”: SEC Chair Atkins gave a keynote address in which he further stated his intention to drive the agency to remove barriers from onchain trading of securities, stating: “We must allow for ‘super-app’ trading platform innovation that increases choice for market participants. Platforms should be able to offer trading, lending, and staking under a single regulatory umbrella.” Great stuff to make it a less fractured system for financial products.

Prediction Markets Article: This article, Unanswered Questions Surrounding Prediction Markets, is something worth reading for everybody in the space. Kalshi and Polymarket have a combined $17.5 billion of volume in 2025 so far, and they haven’t even hit the mainstream yet.

Crypto Companies Go Public: Both Gemini and Figure had seemingly successful IPOs recently, with the price of shares for both companies exceeding prior estimates. Additionally, nine crypto startups raised over $869 million in just one week in September, and companies are on pace to reach $25 billion in venture funding before end of year. So, both the private and public markets remain hot in crypto.

Conclusion:

Taken together, these developments underscore how quickly the digital-asset landscape can shift even when Congress is consumed by unrelated fiscal debates. Senate Democrats’ market-structure proposals, the SEC’s fast-tracked ETF standards, and the ongoing CFTC leadership gap each introduce new opportunities and risks that market participants will need to monitor closely. With agency initiatives advancing in tandem with legislative efforts and crypto companies successfully entering the public markets, the coming months will likely define how the next phase of U.S. crypto regulation and market integration unfolds.