Regulatory Compliance & Growth in the U.S.A & Abroad
DARA
Digital Asset Regulatory Authority
A Self Regulated Organization
Presented By:
DARA U.S & DARA International
Blockchain Legal Institute Foundation
Digital Asset & Tech News From Around The USA
- AI Oversight & Frameworks
- Consumer Protection & Local Authority
- Digital Asset Forensics
- Legal Tech Continuing Education (CLE/CPD Tracks)
Top Points — Federal
The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee advanced a bipartisan artificial intelligence package including the AI-Ready Federal Data Guidelines Act, AI Security and Innovation Act, AI Flaw Reporting and Security Enhancement Act, CREATE AI Act, NSF AI Education Act, LIFT AI Act, READ AI Models Act, Protecting Consumers from Deceptive AI Act, Workforce for AI Trust Act, and Data Infrastructure Energy Measurement and Standards Act.
On July 21, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions holds a hearing on “Oversight of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.”
Top Points — Tokenization
Vantage Bank and Custodia proposed Hazel, a bank-led network where a tokenized dollar would function as a tokenized bank deposit inside a member-bank consortium and as a stablecoin outside it. Anchorage also launched infrastructure that helps banks issue tokenized deposits alongside existing core systems.
Why it matters: Banks and bank networks are increasingly issuing their own tokenized deposits. Regular (non-tokenized) deposits work across the economy because payment systems clear and settle obligations between separate bank ledgers; tokenized deposits need a shared clearing model before they can work across networks.
CLARITY Act
The House Financial Services Committee is holding a field hearing on the Clarity Act on July 17 in NYC. This is just a field hearing and does not progress the Bill in the Senate.
The Clarity Act still needs to be reconciled with the House version of the bill and voted on by the whole Senate. There are a number of contentious issues, including DeFi, yield, AML, and ethics. Polymarket currently places the probability at 47% that the Clarity Act will be signed into law in 2026. The momentum has been losing steam due to competing priorities.
The Senate returns from recess on July 13, leaving roughly three weeks before the August recess. This is likely the last realistic window for crypto regulation 2026 passage.
Customer Identification Programs: Stablecoins
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), jointly with the Federal Reserve Board (FRB), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (collectively, the Agencies), issued a proposed rule that would set out requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs) in maintaining Customer Identification Programs (CIPs), as required under the GENIUS Act. This follows the proposed rule released in April 2026 on AML/CFT and sanctions compliance program requirements for PPSIs, which explicitly deferred CIP to a later rulemaking, and arrives one month before the GENIUS Act’s July 18 rulemaking deadline.
The Proposal would require PPSIs to maintain:
- A written, risk-based CIP that specifies collection of the name, date of birth or entity formation date, address and an identification number (Social Security Number for U.S. persons and EIN for entities) before an account is opened, and sets out record-keeping procedures.
- Identity verification policies that require verification within a reasonable time of account opening.
- Procedures for when verification fails, including when to decline to open an account, when to close an account and when to file a suspicious activity report (SAR).
- A process to ensure screening of customers against government terrorist lists.
The Proposal would also address customer notice and reliance on other regulated institutions. Comments on the Proposal are due on August 21.
Mirroring the language of the GENIUS Act, the Proposal would anchor CIP obligations to customers of the PPSI with “formal” account-holding relationships. The Proposal contemplates primary and secondary market activities and proposes that a PPSI’s CIP obligation extends to direct relationships — i.e., primary market activity, including direct issuance and redemption — and does not extend to activity where the only interaction is with a PPSI’s smart contract. The Proposal further states that applying the obligation to the secondary market would amount to a “global obligation to collect and verify identifying information of individual users” that would be “nearly impossible to implement and could cripple the industry.”
Digital ID and Verifiable Credentials: While the Proposal itself does not incorporate reference to or otherwise advance utilization of digital ID or verifiable credentials, the Request for Comment does solicit input on whether and how the regulatory text should specify such use, as well as input on benefits and risks of such solutions.
Artificial Intelligence
Global private AI investment reached $252.3 billion in 2024, while generative AI alone attracted $33.9 billion, according to the latest AI Index Report by Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
Financial services has emerged as one of the fastest-growing sectors for enterprise AI adoption, with banks increasingly deploying AI for fraud detection, credit underwriting, compliance monitoring, customer service and algorithmic trading. Industry analysts estimate that AI could contribute hundreds of billions of dollars annually in productivity gains across banking and capital markets over the next decade.
At the same time, digital assets are becoming increasingly integrated into mainstream finance. The global stablecoin market has grown to more than $250 billion in circulation in 2025, while banks, asset managers and payment companies are accelerating efforts to tokenize deposits, bonds, money market funds and other real-world assets. Consulting firms project that tokenized assets could reach several trillions of dollars by the end of the decade, fundamentally changing how securities are issued, traded and settled.
Insurers are also confronting a rapidly evolving threat landscape. Cybercriminals are using generative AI to produce more sophisticated phishing campaigns, malware and identity fraud, while organizations increasingly worry about AI systems making incorrect autonomous decisions, producing biased outcomes or suffering model failures that disrupt business operations. At the same time, financial institutions face growing risks from smart contract vulnerabilities, blockchain infrastructure failures and interconnected AI systems capable of executing transactions at machine speed, potentially amplifying losses before humans can intervene.
Against this backdrop, insurers are expanding beyond conventional cyber coverage to evaluate risks associated with autonomous AI systems, digital assets and decentralized financial infrastructure. As underwriting increasingly depends on assessing algorithms alongside human behavior, the insurance industry is expected to play a growing role in determining which AI-powered financial technologies earn institutional trust and achieve widespread adoption.
Securitize Debuts On-Chain and on the NYSE
On July 2, a digital asset tokenization firm began trading on the New York Stock Exchange and concurrently issued tokenized versions of its shares on public blockchains, which it described as the “first newly public company to bring its own stock onchain at the start of its life as a public company.”
The firm structured the tokens as issuer-sponsored securities, rather than as wrapper tokens backed one-to-one by shares held in custody.
Capitol Hill
On July 2, Rep. Troy Downing (R-MT) introduced the Informed Investor Access Act (H.R. 9574), which would amend Section 2(a)(15) of the Securities Act of 1933 to add a category of accredited investor for individuals who receive personalized investment advice or recommendations from a registered investment adviser or registered broker-dealer in connection with the applicable transaction.
The bill defines investment advice consistent with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and recommendation consistent with Regulation Best Interest. Supporters have noted that an advice-based pathway could ease the accredited-purchaser verification burden associated with Rule 506(c) offerings. Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Tim Moore (R-NC) are original cosponsors of the bill. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Court
On June 30, a Massachusetts Superior Court justice granted Massachusetts leave to amend its complaint against a prediction markets platform to add seven counts under the state consumer protection and sports betting statutes, including allegations that the platform offered and advertised sports wagering to underage users.
In Rhode Island, a coalition of tribal gaming organizations filed an amicus brief supporting the state in litigation in which the platform and the CFTC contend that the Commodity Exchange Act confers exclusive federal jurisdiction over sports-related event contracts.
SEC
SEC Seeks Comment on Novel ETFs, Including Crypto and Event Contract Funds. On June 30, the SEC issued a request for comment on exchange-traded funds that seek to invest in innovative asset classes, including crypto assets and event contracts, or that engage in novel investment strategies. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated that the request seeks input on how the U.S. ETF market can continue to grow and innovate while serving investors effectively.
The release asks whether a novel ETF whose principal strategy is to invest in assets that are not securities should nonetheless register and be regulated as an investment company under the Investment Company Act, and whether the Commission should continue to apply its long-standing five-factor test in that analysis.
The release also asks whether Rule 6c-11 should be amended to add portfolio conditions for novel ETFs, and whether the 75-day and 60-day automatic effectiveness periods under Rule 485 should be extended or subject to tolling and Commission-initiated delay. The comment period closes 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, which occurred on July 2.
Dune & Stablecoins
Stablecoins are usually tracked by two headline numbers: market capitalization and transfer volume. Both rank the market as one category sorted by size, with USDT and USDC on top and everything else trailing. But stablecoins are used in very different ways, specializing in different markets and use cases. Sorted by where each token sits, how fast it moves, and who holds it, the largest stablecoins behave like distinct products.
Each stablecoin’s supply concentrates in a different kind of venue. Dune tags the address holding each balance, so supply can be sorted by where it actually sits: an exchange, a DeFi contract, a yield wrapper, or an ordinary wallet. USDe and USDS sit mostly in their issuers’ own yield contracts, about 63% in staked sUSDe and 89% in sUSDS, the shape of a savings product held to earn. USDT on Tron sits about 93% in ordinary wallets rather than smart contracts, the shape of a spending balance for peer-to-peer transfers and remittances. USDC is the clearest case that the chain matters more than the ticker: on Base about 56% sits with one exchange, Coinbase; on Ethereum it is spread across holders, roughly 57% in ordinary wallets and 28% on exchanges; on HyperEVM about 88% sits in a single reserve wallet that supplies Hyperliquid’s trading.
Together, these metrics group stablecoins into three products:
- The trading dollar, led by USDC. High velocity, flow dominated by trading, liquidity provision and flashloans, supply held largely in exchange and contract wallets. Used as collateral and settlement inside crypto markets, from DEX liquidity on Base to perpetuals collateral on HyperEVM/HyperCore.
- The payment rail, led by USDT. On Tron it is widely distributed across millions of individual wallets, moves mostly as plain transfers, and settles most of the identified onchain commerce in the set; on Ethereum the same token is largely exchange settlement.
- The yield dollar, led by USDe and USDS. Supply locked in yield contracts, low velocity, and concentrated in a small number of large holders. This is the dollar institutions hold to earn yield.
The same token can be a different product on different chains. USDT is a retail payment rail on Tron and an exchange-settlement asset on Ethereum; USDC is trading collateral on Base and perpetuals collateral on HyperEVM. The unit that defines the product is the token and the chain together.
Nexus Mutual: DeFi Insurance
To drive onchain capacity, Nexus Mutual has partnered with Symbiotic, the collateral markets platform, tapping shared collateral infrastructure to deepen underwriting capacity across more protocols and asset classes. On the offchain side, they are building connections to standard insurance capital and exposure, with products like the Real-World Insurance Vault, a USDC-denominated vault that backs regulated, real-world insurance products.
Chainlink: Cross-Border Settlements
Chainlink, together with Qivalis, FairSquareLab, and UniKA (Unified Korea Alliance), representing 50+ banks across 16 countries, has launched Project Pangea, an initiative focused on modernizing international foreign exchange markets through real-time, atomic settlement of regulated fiat-referenced digital assets.
Instead of requiring an overhaul of existing systems, participating banks will be able to settle cross-border FX directly with one another, compressing today’s two-day cycle to T+0, removing the settlement risk and tied-up capital that come with it. Banks maintain their existing Swift and ISO 20022 standards, with Chainlink seamlessly connecting those instructions to onchain settlement. It’s a concrete example of blockchain infrastructure solving one of the most stubborn constraints in global finance: the time, cost, and counterparty risk built into how money moves across borders.
U.S. Involvement: The pilot explicitly includes major institutions from North America in regions with high FX volume, stress-testing the infrastructure for cross-border transactions.
Continuing Education Classes
- Dates: July 13 – July 17, 2026
- Venue: Capitol Technology University Campus, Laurel, MD
- Continuing Education: CLE, CE, and CPD credits are available for attending professionals.
Blockchain Legal Institute — www.bli.tools
Additional Resources
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