Lowenstein Crypto advises leading digital asset and cryptocurrency projects, exchanges, and trading firms. Our practice covers regulatory advice, transactions and structuring advice, investigations, and adversarial matters including commercial disputes, bankruptcy, and related litigation. As these markets continue their rapid growth and market participants continue to evolve and mature their businesses, we are providing this weekly digest as a resource that highlights and summarizes a selection of key recent legal regulatory developments.
SEC and CFTC Sign Historic Memorandum of Understanding
On March 11, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) formally entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to guide coordination and collaboration between the two agencies. The MOU establishes a joint harmonization initiative to advance coordinated oversight across the policymaking, examination, and enforcement functions of each agency. Priority areas include: (a) clarifying product definitions through joint interpretations and rulemakings; (b) modernizing clearing, margin, and collateral frameworks; (c) reducing frictions for dually registered exchanges, trading venues, and intermediaries; (d) providing a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for crypto assets and other emerging technologies; (e) streamlining regulatory reporting for trade data, funds, and intermediaries; and (f) coordinating cross-market examinations, economic analyses, risk monitoring, surveillance, and enforcement. On enforcement, the MOU provides that where the agencies’ jurisdictions overlap in an enforcement case, staff will “confer on potential charges and relief, sequencing of filings, litigation strategy and public communications.” The MOU is available here.
SEC Chairman Atkins Outlines Plans for SEC-CFTC Coordination
On March 10, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins delivered remarks at the FIA Global Cleared Markets Conference announcing that the SEC and the CFTC are pursuing a formal memorandum of understanding to deepen interagency coordination, which, as described above, was signed on March 11. Atkins stated, “We are reorienting our approach toward a new golden age of regulatory coherence.” Atkins also outlined several key elements of the harmonization effort: (a) enabling a regulated “super-app” model in which dually registered firms can offer multiple products through a single platform rather than navigating overlapping regulatory regimes; (b) cross-margining, which Atkins called “one clear opportunity to unlock liquidity that would otherwise have remained frozen in separate accounts”; (c) facilitating the ability of market participants to “trade a package” of tightly correlated cash and futures products, which Atkins indicated may require coordinated relief from both agencies; and (d) coordinated oversight of dually regulated firms, including combined meetings on product applications, joint rule interpretations, coordinated enforcement decisions, and shared examinations—with Atkins stating that “[c]oordinated exam planning for dually regulated entities should become standard practice” and “[s]hared supervisory findings, subject to assurances of confidentiality, should be the norm rather than the exception.” Atkins also announced the launch of an SEC-CFTC Harmonization webpage where market participants can request coordinated discussions with staff from both agencies. Chairman Atkins’s remarks are available here.
CFTC Chairman Selig Outlines Crypto Regulatory Agenda
On March 9 CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig delivered remarks at the FIA Global Cleared Markets Conference outlining the CFTC’s regulatory agenda for digital assets. Selig stated that the SEC and CFTC have “put an end to the days of CFTC-SEC infighting by partnering on the Project Crypto initiative.” Selig outlined several regulatory priorities: (a) taxonomy—advancing a clear crypto asset taxonomy so market participants understand whether their products fall within CFTC jurisdiction, SEC jurisdiction, both, or neither; (b) DeFi and software providers—directing staff to clarify whether developers of noncustodial software systems, including digital wallets and DeFi applications, trigger the CFTC’s intermediary registration requirements; (c) perpetual derivatives—directing staff to clarify the CFTC’s views on the classification of “true crypto-perpetuals”; and (d) leveraged crypto spot trading—considering new rules to clarify when leveraged, margined, or financed retail crypto transactions may be offered off-exchange under the “actual delivery” exception. Chairman Selig’s remarks are available here.
Florida Becomes First State to Pass Stablecoin Regulatory Framework
On March 5 and 6, the Florida House of Representatives and Senate passed HB 175 (the “Payment Stablecoin Bill”), making Florida the first U.S. state to enact a comprehensive regulatory framework for payment stablecoin issuers. The bill, introduced by Republican state Sen. Colleen Burton, amends Florida's Control of Money Laundering in Money Services Business Act to formally include stablecoins and aligns the state framework with the federal GENIUS Act. Key provisions include: (i) requiring payment stablecoin issuers to obtain a license from the Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) and prohibiting unlicensed issuance; (ii) mandating 1:1 reserve backing in cash, demand deposits at insured banks, or short-term U.S. Treasury bills; (iii) requiring compliance with anti-money laundering and know-your-customer rules and reporting of transactions exceeding $10,000; (iv) clarifying that certain qualified payment stablecoins are not securities under Florida law; (v) prohibiting issuers from paying interest or yield to holders if such payments are prohibited under federal law; and (vi) requiring issuers whose stablecoins in circulation exceed $10 billion to notify the OFR within seven business days. Out-of-state issuers must notify the OFR in writing within 30 days of beginning operations in Florida. If signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, most provisions will take effect Oct. 1, 2026. The bill is available here.
Nasdaq Announces Equity Token Design and Partnership with Kraken
On March 9, Nasdaq announced a partnership with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, to build an “equities transformation gateway” connecting Nasdaq’s regulated market infrastructure with Kraken’s xStocks tokenization platform, enabling tokenized equities to move between permissioned institutional markets and permissionless blockchain networks. Under the arrangement, Kraken will distribute one-to-one tokenized versions of public company shares to customers outside the United States, with Payward serving as the primary settlement layer and providing know-your-customer and anti-money laundering onboarding compliance. Nasdaq’s press release is available here. Payward’s blog post is available here.
SEC and Justin Sun Reach Settlement Over Tron Lawsuit
On March 5, the SEC filed a motion to settle its lawsuit against Tron founder Justin Sun and related entities. Under the terms of the settlement, Rainberry Inc., a company affiliated with the Tron network, will pay a $10 million civil penalty and the SEC will dismiss with prejudice all claims against Sun, Tron Foundation Limited, and BitTorrent Foundation Ltd. The SEC originally sued Sun and his companies in March 2023, alleging (a) market manipulation through more than 600,000 wash trades of TRX conducted by Tron Foundation employees between accounts that Sun controlled; (b) unregistered offers and sales of TRX and BTT through “bounty programs,” promotional contests (including emoji-based storytelling contests), sweepstakes, and airdrops conditioned on holding TRX; and (c) a celebrity endorsement scheme in which Sun paid figures including Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and Akon to promote the tokens without disclosing their compensation. The SEC’s litigation release is available here.
FinCEN Issues Expanded Southwest Border Geographic Targeting Order
On March 10, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an expanded Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) to help law enforcement combat the illicit activities and money laundering of Mexico-based cartels along the southwest border. The expanded GTO is the latest iteration of an order first issued in March 2025 that originally required money services businesses (MSBs) in 30 ZIP codes across California and Texas to file currency transaction reports (CTRs) at a $200 threshold. FinCEN modified the order in September 2025 to raise the reporting threshold to transactions between $1,000 and $10,000, to add Arizona to the covered jurisdictions, and to extend the filing deadline from 15 days to 30 days. The March 2026 GTO further expands geographic coverage by adding New Mexico for the first time—specifically Bernalillo County, Doña Ana County, and San Juan County—as well as additional areas of Arizona—Maricopa County and Pima County. The GTO requires covered MSBs to file CTRs with FinCEN for cash transactions between $1,000 and $10,000 and to verify the identity of persons presenting such transactions. The terms of the GTO are effective from March 7 through Sept. 2, 2026. The FinCEN news release is available here.
Zero Hash Applies for National Trust Bank Charter
On March 4, digital asset infrastructure firm Zero Hash LLC publicly announced that it has applied for a national trust bank charter with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Zero Hash provides crypto, stablecoin, and tokenized asset infrastructure via APIs and embeddable developer tools. Its platform, serving over 5 million users across 190 countries, powers crypto and stablecoin services for clients including Morgan Stanley (which plans to offer crypto trading on E*Trade through Zero Hash’s infrastructure), Stripe, Franklin Templeton, BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, and prediction markets platform Kalshi. The OCC application is available here. Zero Hash’s press release is available here.
