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
- Artificial Intelligence
- Consumer Protection & Local Authority
- Digital Asset Updates
- Blockchain Education Resources
Artificial Intelligence: California
On August 5, the Assembly Committee on Appropriations will meet to discuss measures including the following:
- SB 903, which regulates the use of artificial intelligence by licensed professionals providing psychotherapy services.
- SB 1111, which expands existing civil and criminal protections against unauthorized use and impersonation by clarifying that a person’s voice or likeness includes digital replicas and that use of replicas without consent is subject to civil liability.
New York Attorney General Office
On July 27, New York Attorney General Letitia James described how the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would restrict state and local law enforcement.
Attorney General James called on Congress to implement stronger regulations on the cryptocurrency market to protect consumers and investors from scams. In written testimony delivered to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Attorney General James details the flood of cryptocurrency scams costing Americans billions of dollars every year. She also describes how the Clarity Act would restrict state and local law enforcement, making it harder for the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to continue its nation-leading efforts to crack down on cryptocurrency scams and hold platforms that violate the law accountable.
National Sheriffs’ Association
On July 31, the National Sheriffs’ Association sent Senate leaders a letter requesting specific changes, including on anti-money laundering and sanctions requirements for certain decentralized finance participants.
While NSA supports establishing a responsible regulatory framework for the digital-asset marketplace, the legislation’s significant law enforcement and public safety risks must be addressed before the Senate votes. Of particular concern, the bill would create broad exemptions from registration, know-your-customer, anti-money-laundering, and sanctions-law requirements for certain decentralized-finance participants, potentially allowing illicit actors to exploit platforms and services designed to obscure digital-asset transactions. By removing these foundational safeguards, the bill would make it harder to prevent financial crimes before they occur, impede law enforcement’s ability to investigate and disrupt criminal networks, and reduce opportunities to recover stolen assets and protect victims.
CFTC Proposes Rules Addressing Affiliations Among Regulated Entities
On July 30, the CFTC published a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding new rules and amendments to its existing regulations for futures commission merchants (FCMs), swap execution facilities (SEFs), designated contract markets (DCMs) and derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs). The proposal follows what the Commission described as continued growth in affiliations among DCOs, DCMs, SEFs, FCMs and other market participants, including market makers.
OCC Seeks Comment on Stablecoin Licensing and Registration Applications
On July 27, the OCC published a Federal Register notice seeking comment on a new information collection covering the application forms that entities will use to seek approval as permitted payment stablecoin issuers, and that foreign payment stablecoin issuers will use to register with the OCC, under the GENIUS Act.
Prediction Markets Updates
Minnesota: On July 27, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota granted preliminary injunctions sought by two prediction market platforms and the CFTC, barring enforcement of a Minnesota statute prohibiting the listing of certain categories of event contracts, including contracts referencing sports, elections and legal actions, days before the statute was to take effect.
Wisconsin: On July 29, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin denied the CFTC’s motion for a preliminary injunction against state enforcement of Wisconsin gambling law as to sports-related event contracts offered by designated contract markets.
Ohio: On July 30, a 6th Circuit panel heard consolidated argument in appeals arising from an Ohio decision declining to shield sports event contracts from state enforcement and a Tennessee decision granting relief pending litigation.
Nevada: A July 24 joint stipulation in Nevada state court requires a prediction market platform to work with a third-party compliance provider to geofence Nevada by August 12 or face a $120,000 daily penalty, following state allegations that investigators placed prohibited trades notwithstanding existing internet protocol and residency-based controls. The stipulation remains in place while the underlying injunction is active, and the platform did not concede grounds for contempt.
New York: Court Grants Partial Summary Judgment on Statutory Seller Claims
On July 30, the Southern District of New York issued a split summary judgment ruling in a putative class action alleging unregistered securities transactions on a digital asset exchange. The court held that the exchange was not a statutory seller as to matched transactions because it never held title to the tokens and because its publication of pricing and token information amounted to collateral participation rather than solicitation. Claims proceed as to orders the exchange filled from its own inventory.
Circle Receives Final OCC Approval
Circle Receives Final OCC Approval to Establish a National Trust Bank. Circle announced on July 10 that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) approved its application to establish First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., which will operate as Circle National Trust. The bank will provide fiduciary digital asset custody for Circle and its affiliates, and may later extend that custody directly to institutional customers including banks and regulated derivatives organizations, as well as manage the USDC reserve.
Impact: This announcement makes USDC the first major dollar stablecoin with a federally supervised bank sitting underneath its custody stack, and eventually its reserves. That distinction matters most to the institutions whose risk committees need a supervised counterparty rather than a contractual assurance. The nearer-term change is operational, because handling custody inside a federally chartered entity removes a third-party layer between institutions and the assets they hold.
Visa Stablecoin Platform (VSP)
Visa Introduces a Platform for Stablecoin Minting, Movement and Management. Visa announced the Visa Stablecoin Platform (VSP), an enterprise environment where financial institutions, fintechs, and crypto natives can access, store, and redeem stablecoins. The platform also includes a new Wallet-as-a-Service offering and mint and burn connectivity. VSP is interoperable with Visa’s existing stablecoin settlement, stablecoin-linked cards, and stablecoin money movement products.
Thoughts: Picture the meeting where a bank decides to support stablecoins. Nobody argues about whether it works. They argue about who owns custody, who signs off on compliance, and how any of it reaches the treasury system. Visa is selling the assembly rather than the token, which quietly repositions where the value sits. The issuer stops being the integration point and the platform becomes it. Expect the next wave of competition to be fought over who owns that layer, not over whose dollar is on the label.
Swift’s Blockchain Ledger Goes Live
Swift’s Blockchain Ledger Goes Live as 17 Banks Prepare for Tokenized Cross-Border Payments. Swift announced that its blockchain-based ledger is ready for initial use, and 17 global banks are preparing to pilot live transactions for 24/7 cross-border payments using tokenized deposits. The ledger arrives nine months after the initial announcement and acts as an orchestration layer for bank-issued tokenized deposits held on the banks’ own ledgers, letting institutions move customer funds overnight and on weekends.
Thoughts: Swift is not replacing settlement, it is layering continuous availability on top of it, with final settlement still running through the rails banks already trust. That means the ledger competes on when money can move rather than on how it settles, which is a narrower claim than the headlines suggest and a much easier one to get approved internally. The nine-month build is the number that sticks out, because Swift does not usually ship at that pace.
Department of State
A New Partnership with the State Department. The U.S. State Department named BPI a founding partner of its new Freedom Tech Excellence Program. The Bitcoin Policy Institute team will work directly with State Department experts to defend digital freedoms around the world: advancing online free expression, strengthening privacy-enhancing technology, and countering digital surveillance.
SEC Signals Increased Scrutiny for Crypto Vaults and Lending Strategies
The SEC has released significant commentary regarding the regulatory status of crypto vaults and lending strategies. The core takeaway is clear: while innovation is welcome, moving activities onchain does not exempt them from federal securities laws.
Commissioner Peirce emphasizes that crypto assets and activities are not inherently exempt from securities regulation. If your activities fall within the securities perimeter, the SEC is actively encouraging firms to engage in a compliant path forward rather than attempting to bypass these frameworks.
Key implications for potential investment advisers & investment companies:
- Vault classifications: Depending on design, vaults may be classified as “common enterprises,” “investment companies,” or “unit investment trusts.” If a vault manages assets or allocates to securities, it may fall directly under the Investment Company Act of 1940.
- Lending strategy risks: Onchain lending strategies may bear the hallmarks of notes that are securities, regardless of the underlying assets. Managers must evaluate factors like motivation and distribution plans.
- The SEC is looking closely at who is making the decisions — whether it’s an immutable smart contract or a group with managerial discretion — which directly affects whether investment adviser regulations apply.
- The SEC has explicitly stated they welcome inquiries from market participants designing or operating these strategies.
Coldcard Wallet Exploit
- Observed losses (as of August 2, 2026 reporting) reached approximately 1,367 BTC (nearly $89 million) across roughly 4,585 addresses, according to Galaxy Research tracking.
- This ranks among the largest failures of Bitcoin self-custody hardware to date. It primarily hit long-term single-signature holders who generated seeds on affected devices years earlier.
- Self-custody users should consider moving to a multi-signature custody option and/or holding assets with a qualified custodian (bank, trust company, broker-dealer).
AI Agents
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg believes billions of people will have personal AI agents within the next five years. He predicted that the technology will evolve from simple chatbots into digital assistants capable of helping users manage nearly every aspect of their lives.
ZeroHash — Agentic Finance Product Suite. ZeroHash launched a suite that lets AI agents, intelligent applications, and machine-to-machine systems move money directly, on the same regulated rails their bank, fintech, and payment partners already use. Every platform they spoke with asked the same two questions: how do we let an agent move money, and how do we know that agent is who it says it is?
What the Agentic Finance Product Suite enables:
- Hold onchain money. Every agent is screened with Know Your Agent (KYA), with delegated user permissions and access to 40+ protocols and chains and 100+ assets.
- Move onchain money. A simple, global, instant way for agents to move money. x402 support folds settlement into the HTTP request/response cycle, so money moves like software.
- Stream onchain money. An agent signs one authorization with a spending cap. The Payments Streaming Engine meters real usage and settles in increments, never charging beyond what was consumed.
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation. (Fortune)
Blockchain Topics For Review
- Blockchain Bootcamp & Workforce Expo: marylandblockchainassociation.org/summer-conference
- BLI YouTube: youtube.com/@BlockchainLegalInstitute
- Global Petition To Eliminate The Statute of Limitations for Victims of Digital Asset Crimes: dara.foundation/statue-of-limitations-global-petition
Blockchain Legal Institute — www.bli.tools
Additional Resources
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