Comparatively, while the European Union has been in conversations around regulating digital assets as far back as 2020 and is now ahead with the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the U.S. has sat without any proper laws for crypto over many years. It was merely a matter of adapting laws already on the books to the online domain, he said.
This “made room” for the crypto world to exist, but it was far from easy. The uncertainty pushed companies and individuals to crypto-friendly jurisdictions. During the Biden presidency, even so-called Operation Choke Point 2.0 regulatory pressure effectively pushed banks from doing business with digital asset businesses.
The U.S. this year is unexpectedly everywhere in crypto news, including the headlines. President Donald Trump made it crystal clear that digital finance was now a federal priority. Subsequent to this, three major bills have made their way into Congress — the CLARITY Act, GENIUS Act, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. Together, the provisions move the U.S. closer to a crypto framework that might soon resemble the EU’s acknowledgment and establishment of categories for digital assets.
The shifting framework
The CLARITY Act (draft) aims to establish a federal regime governing digital assets, with regulatory authority shared by the SEC and CFTC. Its novelty, however, is the notion of an “investment contract asset,” where something that starts as a security–like a token fundraiser–may be treated as if it were not a security once decentralized and mature. It established categories such as Digital Commodities and Digital Assets that are still securities, and Permitted Payment Stablecoins, as well as rules on custody, transactions, AML, and international cooperation.
The GENIUS Act, passed in July 2025, established the firm licensing regime for stablecoin issuers, based on requiring (1) 1:1 backing with safe liquid assets; (2) monthly reserve reports; (3) AML compliance; as well as prohibiting both any interest to holders, and giving rights of redemption parties when an issuer becomes insolvent. The approach is more or less consistent for asset-referenced and e-money tokens under MiCA, but they extend across the EU within one license.
The Anti-CBDC Act — already passed by the U.S. House of Representatives but not yet a law – takes another approach: attempting to explicitly outlaw any U.S. central bank digital currency altogether. Meanwhile, the EU is already in the process of investigating a digital euro under ECB regulation.
Fragmented but moving
Now, the U.S. is drilling down on three specific topics: asset categories, stablecoin reserve requirements, and consumer protections. This is hard not to compare with the framework at the EU level, hailed as an integrated system, while the proposed approach in the United States would still be piecemeal and agency-driven. For issuers, the EU has one clear path to compliance, and the U.S., even with this new proposed framework, would entail moving through several regulators, though the divide between them now should diminish.
That said, while two of the acts are still proposals and the framework looks disjointed, agencies are already rushing to fill in the gaps by issuing specific regulations. The S.E.C. has already acted: In July, it cleared the Bitcoin btc-0. 42%Bitcoin and Ethereum eth-0. 35Ethereum exchange-traded products to facilitate “in-kind” creations and redemptions, bringing them in line with E.T.P.s based on commodities like gold. The definition was a move toward a “fit-for-purpose” framework, said Paul S. Atkins, who was, at that time, the chairman of the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
In the meantime, Nasdaq has requested that the S.E.C. allow tokenized securities to be traded with clear labeling so that clearing houses and the Depository Trust Company can price tokenized securities just like traditional stocks. Should it gain acceptance, blockchain technology would graduate from a technology on the edge of stock markets to one at its core.
The overview is obvious: the U.S. is in the process of constructing a regulatory framework for digital assets after avoiding it for years. Not as tightly bound as that of Europe, it is awakening with sudden pace. That challenge and opportunity falls on the shoulders of the industry leaders: to adapt to changing rules while defining how the U.S. aligns itself as a star player in the digital world.
