A lot happened this year in cryptocurrency-related politics. Congress this year passed, and the president signed, the first major cryptocurrency legislation in U.S. history. Federal regulators have sharply reduced their enforcement actions against cryptocurrency companies while also announcing more regulatory efforts aimed at boosting the industry. Companies themselves have felt more encouraged to launch new products and services in the US.
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the narrative
Last year, CoinDesk’s policy team explained what we would look for in 2025. Here’s how we did it.
Why is it important
This is the last edition of this newsletter for 2025. A lot happened and clearly we will all be busy well into 2026.
breaking it
On December 31, 2024, I wrote that “it seems quite likely that the agency will change how it approaches future lawsuits against crypto industry participants. Less clear is how the agency might handle its ongoing cases against companies like Coinbase, Binance, Binance.US, Kraken and others. No attorney seems to think the SEC will dismiss these cases entirely.”
The SEC has dismissed the vast majority of the cases it filed last year.
Other court cases played out largely as expected; Sam Bankman-Fried’s appeal is ongoing, Roman Storm’s case ended in a partial conviction with post-trial motions still ongoing, Do Kwon pleaded guilty to some charges, and there are still a small number of active cases that we are following.
Jesse Hamilton noted that while Congress would work on the legislation, “Bottom line: Post-election excitement often turns into a vibe of why this is taking so long.”
While the GENIUS Act addressing stablecoins was signed into law, also confirming Cheyenne Ligon’s analysis, ongoing negotiations on the larger market structure bill confirm Jesse’s analysis.
The regulatory world has become much more complex when it comes to digital assets, in the sense that an increasing number of nations are advancing their approaches towards digital assets. That ranges from rule-making in the U.S. to issuing new licenses in the Middle East to Russia’s changing approach to digital assets.
This week
- Happy New Year everyone!
If you have any ideas or questions about what I should discuss next week or any other comments you would like to share, please feel free to email me at [email protected] or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.
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See you next week!
