A lot has happened this year regarding cryptocurrency-related policy. Congress passed the first major encryption legislation in U.S. history this year and it was signed by the president. Federal regulators have significantly scaled back enforcement actions against cryptocurrency companies while announcing more rulemaking aimed at supporting the industry. Companies themselves are emboldened to launch new products and services in the United States
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narrative
Last year, CoinDesk’s policy team explained our goals for 2025. Here’s how we do it.
why this is important
This is the final 2025 version of this newsletter. There’s a lot going on and obviously we’ll all be busy into 2026.
break it down
On December 31, 2024, I wrote, “The agency will likely change the way it approaches future lawsuits against crypto industry participants. Less clear is how the agency will handle ongoing cases against Coinbase, Binance, Binance.US, Kraken, and others. No attorneys seem to think the SEC will dismiss these cases outright.”
The SEC dismissed the vast majority of cases launched last year.
Other court cases proceed largely as expected. Sam Bankman-Fried’s appeal is still ongoing, Roman Storm’s case ended with a partial conviction, post-trial motions are still pending, Do Kwon has pleaded guilty to some charges, and we’re still tracking a handful of active cases.
Jesse Hamilton noted that while Congress will work on legislation, “the bottom line is this: Post-election excitement often turns into a why-it-takes-so-long atmosphere.”
While the Genius Act for stablecoins became law — corroborating Cheyenne Ligon’s analysis — ongoing negotiations on a more important market structure bill corroborate Jesse’s analysis.
When it comes to digital assets, the regulatory world has become more complex as more and more countries are advancing their approaches to digital asset management. They range from rulemaking in the United States to new licenses issued in the Middle East to Russia’s evolving approach to digital assets.
this week
- Happy New Year everyone!
If you have any ideas or questions about what I should cover next week, or if you have any other feedback you’d like to share, please feel free to email me: [email protected] Or find me at Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.
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See you next week!
