Crypto's Moment in Washington: What Banks, FinTechs and Crypto Companies Need to Know Now

It has been a fast 18 months for federal digital asset policy, dating back to President Donald Trump's first executive order (EO) on digital assets in January 2025. The U.S. Congress passed the country's first stablecoin law, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a sweeping market structure bill, the White House put out a regulatory road map running more than 100 pages, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and federal banking agencies have all opened rulemakings to carry that agenda out.

Yet the bill that the industry, the Trump Administration and Wall Street all agree matters most – the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act) – is still sitting in the U.S. Senate, short of the 60 votes it needs to become law. For banks, financial institutions, housing and real estate companies, and crypto and financial technology (FinTech) businesses, that combination of regulatory momentum without legislative certainty is a compliance headache and a genuine opening.

This Holland & Knight alert walks through where things stand just past the midpoint of 2026 and flags three recent Firm programs that dug into these issues.

Congress: The CLARITY Act Gets Stuck

The CLARITY Act would build the first real federal rulebook for digital asset market structure, splitting jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC, creating a new "digital commodity" category distinct from a security and setting up registration for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, dealers and custodians. The House passed it on July 17, 2025, by a comfortable 294-134 margin – with 78 Democrats joining – as part of the chamber's self-styled "Crypto Week," alongside the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) and Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act.

The Senate has taken a more circuitous route that is still ongoing. The Committee on Agriculture put out its own market structure draft in January 2026 and pushed through companion legislation – the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act, a bill that would hand the CFTC exclusive authority over spot digital commodity markets – on a party-line 12-11 vote on January 29. The Committee on Banking then marked up its own version of the CLARITY Act and advanced it 15-9 on May 14, with Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) crossing over to vote yes. The bill landed on the Senate's legislative calendar on June 1 (General Orders No. 423), and U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the White House spent weeks publicly pushing for a floor vote and enactment by July 4.

As of late July 2026, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) still hadn't scheduled floor time, and the bill remained short of the 60 votes it needs for cloture. The sticking points are familiar to anyone who has followed this debate: how to treat decentralized finance (DeFi), how far anti-money laundering (AML) and Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reporting should reach, an unresolved ethics provision touching on federal officials' own crypto holdings and reconciling three different versions of the bill. Prediction markets and industry watchers now put the odds of enactment this year somewhere between 45 percent and 60 percent, and many see August as the real deadline before the Senate calendar fills up with appropriations and midterm politics.

The White House Isn't Waiting on Congress

The Trump Administration hasn't been sitting on its hands while the Senate deliberates. On January 23, 2025, in his first week back in office, President Trump signed EO 14178, "Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology." It undid the prior administration's digital asset policies, laid out a pro-innovation framework and created the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, chaired by White House Special Advisor for AI and Crypto David Sacks. In March 2025, a second EO established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile to be funded with digital assets the government has already forfeited.

On July 30, 2025, the Working Group delivered its mandated report, running more than 160 pages with over 100 recommendations organized around five buckets: market structure, banking, stablecoins and payments, illicit finance and taxation. The Working Group report urged Congress to build on the CLARITY Act by giving the CFTC clear jurisdiction over spot digital commodities and recognizing DeFi as its own category, and it tells the SEC and CFTC not to wait for legislation but to use the authority they already have to let crypto trading happen at the federal level. This report is effectively the Trump Administration's scorecard, and it is shaping every rulemaking described below.

The SEC Trades Enforcement for Rulemaking

Under Chair Paul Atkins, the SEC has formally retired what it used to call "regulation by enforcement" against crypto. The agency is now writing rules and issuing guidance instead, coordinated through its Crypto Task Force under Commissioner Hester Peirce. The biggest move so far came on March 17, 2026, when the SEC and CFTC jointly published an interpretive release sorting digital assets into five buckets: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, payment stablecoins (as the GENIUS Act defines them) and digital securities, with only the last bucket still subject to federal securities law. The release classifies bitcoin, ether, Solana and XRP as non-security digital commodities.

At the SEC Speaks conference that same month, Chair Atkins introduced an "A-C-T" framework (Advance, Clarify, Transform) as the organizing idea behind the agency's 2026 agenda. A July 7 statement on that agenda confirmed the SEC is working on a formal test for when 1) a crypto asset stops being an investment contract, 2) an "innovation exemption" allowing limited trading of tokenized securities on new kinds of platforms, 3) a rule creating capital-raising pathways for crypto offerings, 4) a custody rule letting broker-dealers hold non-security crypto assets (including payment stablecoins) and 5) an update to transfer agent rules to accommodate blockchain-based recordkeeping.

The CFTC Gears Up for a Bigger Job

The CFTC has been moving in lockstep with the SEC under "Project Crypto," the two agencies' joint effort to align their rules. On May 29, 2026, the CFTC approved the first true bitcoin perpetual futures contract for listing on a designated exchange and put out a policy statement inviting more perpetual contracts on other spot digital commodities – a real step toward bringing offshore perpetual trading volume onshore under the CFTC's watch. Two of its divisions have also issued guidance on frequently asked questions, building on earlier no-action letters, letting futures commission merchants accept payment stablecoins, bitcoin and ether as margin collateral, with capital charges and other conditions attached.

There's a catch, though. The CFTC's current short staffing has stalled progress. In May, the House Committee on Agriculture sent the Trump Administration a letter urging it to fill four vacant commissioner seats and support a larger staff before the agency's job expands to cover spot digital commodity markets. Even if the CLARITY Act or the Senate Agriculture Committee bill becomes law, the CFTC will need a lot more people to write and enforce an entirely new rulebook within the timelines those bills set.

Banking Regulators Race to Implement the GENIUS Act

The GENIUS Act, signed into law July 18, 2025, created the country's first federal framework for "payment stablecoins." Issuance is limited to a permitted payment stablecoin issuer (PPSI), with 100 percent reserve backing, monthly public reserve disclosures, and no paying interest or yield to holders. The law gave regulators 12 months to write implementing rules, and 2026 has delivered, agency by agency:

• The Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) proposed comprehensive rules in February and March covering bank subsidiaries, uninsured national banks, U.S. branches of foreign banks and non-bank issuers, with more than 200 questions posed for comment.
• The Treasury Department proposed rules in April spelling out how it will decide whether a state's stablecoin regime is "substantially similar" to the federal one – the gate state-qualified issuers have to pass through.
• The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) jointly proposed a rule in April on the GENIUS Act's AML and sanctions provisions, followed by an OCC-specific BSA and sanctions proposal in June.
• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) proposed rules in April on reserve composition, redemption, capital, risk management and deposit insurance for FDIC-supervised issuers, as well as confirmed that reserve deposits are insured to the issuer, not passed through to individual stablecoin holders.
• The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) proposed licensing and investment rules in February for federally insured credit unions that want in.

Separately, the banking agencies have been walking back the tighter posture that defined the last few years. The Federal Reserve pulled its 2023 guidance (SR 23-8) that required sign-off before banks could touch crypto-asset activities. The OCC has issued interpretive letters confirming national banks can offer and outsource crypto custody and execution without prior written non-objection. On March 28, 2025, the FDIC issued guidance (FIL-7-2025), letting FDIC-insured banks offer crypto custody without prior approval, as long as it's done safely and soundly (though FDIC insurance still doesn't cover the crypto itself).

Holland & Knight Is in the Room

Holland & Knight's Banking and Financial Services Policy, Financial Services Regulatory, FinTech and Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology teams have been tracking (and showing up to) this fast-moving space through three recent programs.

On May 14 – the same day the Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act – Holland & Knight hosted the latest installment of its Financial Services Regulatory Crystal Ball webinar series, "Stablecoins: Finance and Payments in the GENIUS Act Era." Partner Leonard Bernstein opened the program, which was moderated by Associate Andrew Balthazor, co-leader of the Crypto Asset Dispute Team. Panelists – including Partners Josias Dewey, Peter Hardy, Christopher Phillips and Camelia Shoemaker, along with Senior Policy Advisor Yasmin Nelson – covered the GENIUS Act's core provisions, including its licensing requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, the 1:1 reserve asset mandates, and prohibitions on interest or yield. The panel also discussed how to contract for stablecoin payments, the emerging line between payment stablecoins and tokenized deposits, perfecting security interests in stablecoins under U.C.C. Article 12, the GENIUS Act's AML and freeze-and-seize obligations, holder redress options and issuer technology requirements, and the evolving policy landscape, including the interaction between the GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act.

On May 20, Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office hosted "The Future of Digital Assets: Policies, Risks, Opportunities" with financial services professionals. Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) gave the keynote, and Rep. Shomari Figures (D-Ala.), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, sat down with Senior Policy Advisor Yasmin Nelson for a fireside chat.

On June 24, Holland & Knight's Atlanta office hosted "Navigating the New World Order in Financial Compliance" and kicked off FinTech for Good, a new campaign on how FinTech companies can do right by the communities they serve. The event, led by Partners Roth Kehoe and Peter Hardy and Associate Andrew Balthazor, covered the GENIUS Act and Georgia's newly enacted Payment Stablecoin Act.

What This Means for You

Banks and Financial Institutions

• Focus on the GENIUS Act's concrete rule deadlines, not the CLARITY Act's fate. That's your real compliance clock. Comment periods on the OCC, Treasury Department, FDIC and NCUA proposals closed between April and June, and final rules are expected before the end of the year.
• If you're weighing stablecoin issuance, decide now on FDIC or state-qualified PPSI status. Look hard at the tokenized-deposit alternative too, since unlike a payment stablecoin, tokenized deposits can be FDIC-insured and pay yield.
• Build a BSA/AML and sanctions program around where FinCEN, OFAC and OCC are headed, not just where they are today.
• Revisit your custody strategy. Between the Federal Reserve pulling SR 23-8, the OCC's interpretive letters and FDIC's FIL-7-2025, crypto custody now fits inside ordinary safety-and-soundness supervision rather than a special pre-approval process.
• The shift from blanket "de-risking" to risk-based supervision is your opening and should be a near-term priority. If you avoided crypto and FinTech relationships because of regulatory uncertainty, that excuse is getting weaker by the month.
• Re-underwrite correspondent and deposit relationships with crypto and FinTech clients now that enforcement-driven supervision has ended, and watch for the Treasury Department's "substantially similar" determination. It will decide whether a state money transmitter or trust charter is a faster, cheaper path to PPSI status than going federal.
• If you offer or plan to offer custody, make sure your disclosures match the FDIC's proposed treatment. Stablecoin reserve deposits are insured to the issuer, not passed through to individual holders.

Housing and Real Estate

• The March SEC-CFTC taxonomy, plus the SEC's ongoing work on tokenized securities and capital formation, is opening a clearer (if still unsettled) path to tokenizing real estate interests, fund interests and mortgage-backed instruments.
• Lenders and title/escrow companies should track how U.C.C. Article 12 is developing at the state level on perfecting security interests in digital assets, since it directly touches digital-asset-collateralized real estate lending.
• If stablecoins are showing up in cross-border deals, earnest money or closing funds, confirm your counterparty diligence checks that the token issuer is a GENIUS Act-compliant PPSI.

Crypto and FinTech Companies

• The SEC-CFTC taxonomy is useful, but it was built as a bridge to market structure legislation – not a replacement for it. Don't treat it as the final word.
• Build compliance programs flexible enough to absorb the CLARITY Act's registration, customer-asset segregation and capital rules if it passes. As marked up, it gives companies 270 days to register, with the SEC and CFTC's joint implementing rules generally due within 360 days of enactment.
• In the meantime, engage now with the SEC's innovation exemption, capital-raising rulemaking and custody proposals, and the CFTC's guidance on tokenized collateral.
• DeFi treatment is one of the least-settled pieces of the Senate negotiation. If you run a decentralized protocol or build front-end interfaces, pay close attention to how the final bill defines "control" for intermediary registration. That definition could decide whether you're in scope.
• Track the CFTC's commissioner vacancies and the OCC, FDIC, Treasury Department and NCUA rule-finalization timelines. If those agencies land in different places, it could tip the scales between federal and state PPSI status.

Holland & Knight Can Help

Federal digital asset policy is running on two clocks right now. The single most important bill is stuck in the Senate, while the agencies charged with carrying out existing law, along with the Trump Administration's broader agenda, are moving on their own separate timetable. Don't wait for the CLARITY Act to reach President Trump's desk before you act. The GENIUS Act's rule deadlines, SEC and CFTC's fast-moving taxonomy and rulemaking agenda, and banking agencies' new approach to custody and safekeeping are already changing what compliance and opportunity look like for your business.

Holland & Knight's Financial Services Regulatory Team, Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology Team, FinTech Team and Public Policy & Regulation Group are tracking developments closely through programming such as the Financial Services Regulatory Crystal Ball webinar series and ongoing work with congressional policymakers. To discuss the potential impact to your business, reach out to the authors or other members of the teams listed above.

Former Holland & Knight Intern Alex Diller also contributed to this alert.

Information contained in this alert is for the general education and knowledge of our readers. It is not designed to be, and should not be used as, the sole source of information when analyzing and resolving a legal problem, and it should not be substituted for legal advice, which relies on a specific factual analysis. Moreover, the laws of each jurisdiction are different and are constantly changing. This information is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. If you have specific questions regarding a particular fact situation, we urge you to consult the authors of this publication, your Holland & Knight representative or other competent legal counsel.