Two sweeping pieces of US legislation are forcing financial firms to fundamentally rethink how they approach digital asset compliance, according to analysis from MCO (MyComplianceOffice).
The enacted GENIUS Act and the pending CLARITY Act, alongside a joint SEC/CFTC interpretive release published on 17 March 2026, are pulling digital assets out of regulatory ambiguity and into clearly defined compliance categories for the first time.
The shift marks a turning point for the industry. The central compliance question is no longer whether firms cover crypto at all — it is which digital assets, transactions, employees, and information flows fall under which rules, and when.
The GENIUS Act: stablecoins get their framework
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act — better known as the GENIUS Act — became federal law on 18 July 2025, making it the first comprehensive US regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. Under the legislation, only permitted issuers, including subsidiaries of insured depository institutions and OCC-approved nonbank issuers, may issue stablecoins to US users. Issuers must maintain 1:1 reserves in high-quality liquid assets, publish monthly reserve disclosures, and comply fully with the Bank Secrecy Act.
The practical implication for compliance teams is significant, MCO stated.
The CLARITY Act: drawing the SEC/CFTC boundary
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 addresses one of the most persistent headaches in US crypto policy: determining whether a digital asset is a security or a commodity. The bill, which has passed the House with broad bipartisan support and now awaits Senate action, assigns primary oversight of spot market digital commodities to the CFTC whilst preserving SEC authority where securities laws continue to apply. It also introduces registration, market surveillance, recordkeeping, and anti-money laundering expectations for digital asset intermediaries.
A five-category taxonomy for digital assets
The joint SEC/CFTC interpretive release published in March 2026, Interpretive Release No. 33-11412, establishes a five-category taxonomy that gives compliance officers a clearer map to work from. Digital commodities, which include assets such as Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and XRP among 16 named examples, are not considered securities where their value derives from a functional blockchain rather than managerial promises. Digital collectibles, including NFTs and meme coins, sit in a separate category, as do digital tools — tokens serving practical functions such as memberships or credentials. Stablecoins issued by licensed institutions are explicitly excluded from the definition of a security under the GENIUS Act, though algorithmic or yield-bearing variants may still qualify. Tokenised versions of traditional securities, meanwhile, remain securities regardless of their format.
Expanded MNPI obligations and employee scope
The two Acts also expand the range of information types and employee groups that fall within existing material non-public information obligations. Stablecoin reserve events, token listing decisions, material protocol changes, and platform security incidents are now examples of information that could be considered material and non-public. Firms are being urged to map new employee groups — including token issuance teams, treasury staff, and listing committees — against existing insider identification frameworks, and to extend restricted lists and blackout periods accordingly.
MyComplianceOffice’s integrated platform is designed to bring digital asset personal trading and insider risk management into the same system firms already use for traditional securities, with features including automated wallet discovery and multi-chain activity aggregation.
For a full breakdown of how these regulatory developments affect compliance obligations across different asset types and employee groups, read the complete analysis from MyComplianceOffice.
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