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.

FDIC Rolls Out GENIUS Act, BSA, and Sanctions Framework for Payment Stablecoin Issuers

On May 22, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) board approved a notice of proposed rulemaking that would apply Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), anti-money laundering (AML), and economic-sanctions compliance standards to FDIC-supervised permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs), as required by the GENIUS Act. The proposal would apply to PPSI subsidiaries of FDIC-supervised insured state nonmember banks and state savings associations–meaning bank-affiliated stablecoin issuers would face full bank-grade AML, countering financing of terrorism, sanctions-screening, customer-identification, suspicious activity reporting, and recordkeeping obligations equivalent to those imposed on insured depository institutions rather than the lighter money-transmitter framework many crypto-native issuers operate under today. It would also establish a formal consultation process under which the FDIC must give the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network director an opportunity to review proposed AML enforcement actions or significant supervisory actions before they are initiated, formalizing interagency coordination that has historically been ad hoc. The FDIC’s press release on the PPSI proposal is available here.

New Hampshire Lawmakers Reach Compromise on ‘Blockchain Basics’ Bill 

On May 27, the New Hampshire House and Senate agreed on a compromise version of HB639, the “Blockchain Basics” bill, which would explicitly protect the rights to use cryptocurrency for payment, operate a blockchain node, and engage in cryptocurrency mining under state law, and which would exempt those activities from state money-transmitter licensing. The compromise retains the bill’s core safe-harbor framework for node operators and miners–who otherwise face potential exposure under securities and money-transmission regimes–while leaving decentralized finance, staking, and broader stablecoin oversight to future legislation. The bill summary of HB639 can be viewed here.

DTCC To Bring Tokenized Stocks, ETFs, and Treasuries to Stellar’s Blockchain

On May 27, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) said it plans to connect tokenized stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and U.S. Treasuries to the Stellar (XLM) public blockchain in the first half of 2027 as part of an explicitly multichain strategy intended to make the DTCC’s tokenization service interoperable with multiple public ledgers rather than a single permissioned network. The Stellar integration follows the December 2025 Securities and Exchange Commission no-action letter that permits The Depository Trust Company (DTC), a subsidiary of DTCC, to tokenize a defined set of assets including Russell 1000 stocks, ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries. DTC plans to begin limited production trades of tokenized assets in July 2026 ahead of a wider October rollout. The announcement is available here.

Texas Bank Completes OCC Conversion to National Charter, Pitching Itself as Crypto’s Bridge to the Fed

On May 28, United Texas Bank (UTB) announced it had satisfied the final conditions of its Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) charter conversion, completing its transition from a Texas state-chartered bank to a nationally chartered institution. UTB, which says it already clears roughly $10 billion per month for global crypto firms and processes over $120 billion in annual crypto-related transactions, is launching a 24/7 artificial intelligence-driven payments network called UTB Atomic to fill the round-the-clock liquidity void left by the failures of Silvergate and Signature. A copy of the press release can be found here.

Tether and Government of Georgia Launch GELT, a Lari-Pegged Sovereign-Aligned Stablecoin

On May 25, Tether announced the launch of GEL₮ (GELT), a stablecoin pegged to the Georgian lari and issued in partnership with the government of the country of Georgia under a bespoke regulatory framework promulgated by the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) in early March 2026. The NBG framework requires full reserve backing with high-quality assets, strict liquidity and redemption rights, AML compliance, and prior NBG consent for any stablecoin issuer. The NBG also notably retains ongoing supervisory authority over GELT and any future issuers. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and NBG President Natia Turnava have publicly endorsed the project, which Tether is positioning as its first non-dollar sovereign-aligned token and a complement to USDT’s roughly $190 billion market cap. Georgia’s existing virtual-asset-service-provider licensing regime, crypto-mining-friendly policies, and tax-payment-via-crypto framework are described as aligned with emerging U.S. rules under the GENIUS Act. Tether’s press release is available here.

UK Imposes Sweeping Crypto-Focused Russia Sanctions

On May 26, the United Kingdom announced one of its most expansive cryptoasset-focused sanctions packages to date, using Regulation 17A of the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations for the first time to designate cryptoasset exchanges and related infrastructure used to evade sanctions on Russia. The package also covers the A7A5 ruble-backed stablecoin and several Kyrgyzstan- and Russia-based facilitator entities previously sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control in August 2025. The package targets HTX–the exchange affiliated with Justin Sun–along with other crypto networks that UK authorities say have facilitated Russian sanctions evasion through backdoor channels. The UK government’s announcement is available here.

Banca Sella Becomes First Italian Bank Authorized To Offer Crypto Services Under MiCA

On May 27, Banca Sella–a €34 billion Biella-based bank with roughly 1.4 million customers–completed the Bank of Italy notification process under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation, becoming the first Italian bank authorized to offer custody and transfer services for digital assets. The Biella-based bank used MiCA’s lighter notification path available to credit institutions–rather than the full licensing required of nonbank entities–filing 40 days in advance and clearing the process without a full licensing review. Banca Sella plans to launch custody, receipt, and transfer services for digital assets to corporate and institutional clients before year-end 2026. Banca Sella’s press release is available here.