Regulatory update: Digital assets market structure principles, DOJ’s largest crypto seizure

a16z crypto Regulatory Team
Share

Tags

Editor’s note: Our Regulatory Updates series highlights the latest regulatory, legal, and policy happenings relevant to the crypto industry, curated by the a16z crypto regulatory team.

Regulatory news: June 17 – July 1, 2025

🧠 tl;dr

  • Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) released a set of principles for the development of comprehensive market structure legislation.
  • In the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the history of the U.S. Secret Service, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil forfeiture complaint against more than $225.3 million in cryptocurrency connected to the theft and laundering of funds from victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes.

🦅 Congress

  • As mentioned in “tl;dr,” Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) released a set of principles for the development of comprehensive market structure legislation.
  • Senator Adam Schiff (D-Cal.) introduced the Curbing Officials’ Income and Nondisclosure (COIN) Act, which would “prevent the financial exploitation of digital assets by public officials, including the president and their immediate family.”
  • Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and former Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) wrote that the GENIUS Act “represents a major step forward in establishing guardrails for stablecoins” but that broader “market structure reform is also essential.”

⚖ Department of Justice

  • As mentioned in “tl;dr,” in the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the history of the U.S. Secret Service, the DOJ filed a civil forfeiture complaint against more than $225.3 million in cryptocurrency connected to the theft and laundering of funds from victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes.
  • The DOJ charged a serial hacker, known as “IntelBroker,” in connection with a years-long scheme that allegedly caused more than $25 million in damages and involved stealing victims’ data and selling it for millions in illicit funds. The hacker had accepted payments in cryptocurrencies.

💰 Department of the Treasury

  • In a post on X, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that “crypto is not a threat to the dollar” and “stablecoins can reinforce dollar supremacy.”

🏡 Federal Housing Finance Agency

  • In a post on X, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte said that he had ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “prepare their businesses to count cryptocurrency as an asset for a mortgage.”

💵 Federal Reserve

  • The Federal Reserve Board announced that reputational risk will no longer be a component of examination programs in its supervision of banks.

📈 Securities and Exchange Commission

  • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul S. Atkins told Fox Business that the SEC will focus on making “understandable and clear” rules of the road for digital assets, and that he hopes that the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act will receive Congressional and Presidential approval.
  • The SEC charged a recidivist and his firm with conducting a fraudulent offering that raised more than $400,000 from at least 11 investors, alleging that he falsely claimed that his fund would invest in and hold crypto assets for the fund’s benefit on certain crypto asset trading platforms, when it did not.

🌍 State

🐻 California

  • In its first enforcement action under the Digital Financial Assets Law (DFAL), the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation entered into a consent order with Coinme, Inc., a crypto kiosk operator. The consent order requires Coinme to pay a $300,000 penalty for violating the DFAL’s transaction limits, which prohibits crypto kiosks from accepting or dispensing to a customer more than $1,000 in a day, and for failing to include certain required disclosures on customer receipts.

🗽 New York

  • The New York State Attorney General secured a court order freezing $300,000 worth of cryptocurrency linked to a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment scam that targeted hundreds of Russian-speaking New Yorkers in Brooklyn and across the country. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office seized an additional $140,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
  • The New York State Department of Financial Services issued guidance to all individuals and entities regulated by the Department to reiterate the importance of adhering carefully to U.S. sanctions, as well as to New York State and Federal laws and regulations, including Department cybersecurity and virtual currency regulations.

🐂 Texas

  • Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Investment Act into law.

🍎 Washington

  • The Spokane City Council voted unanimously on ordinance C36704 titled “Virtual Currency Kiosk Prohibition for a Safer Spokane” that eliminates virtual currency kiosks within the City of Spokane.

🌍 International

🇦🇺 Australia

  • The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre announced that a nationwide law enforcement operation led to the identification of “90 scam victims, money mules, and suspected offenders who topped the list of crypto ATM users.”

💵 Bank for International Settlements

  • A Bank for International Settlements press release stated that stablecoins “fall short” as a form of sound money and “pose a risk to financial stability and monetary sovereignty” without regulation, but that “tokenisation can enhance efficiency and open new possibilities in cross-border payments, securities markets and beyond.”

🇪🇺 European Union

  • European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said that “accelerating progress towards a digital euro is a strategic priority” as it would help safeguard Europe’s bank-based financial and monetary system and help address some of the risks posed by stablecoins.
  • The European Securities and Markets Authority released a new Q&A 2579 on “the non-compliance of the shared order book model with the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation.”
  • The Spanish Guardia Civil, with the support of Europol and law enforcement from Estonia, France, and the United States, arrested five members of a criminal network engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud.

📒 Financial Action Task Force

  • The Financial Action Task Force published its sixth targeted update on the global implementation of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures to virtual assets and virtual asset service providers.

🇮🇪 Ireland

  • Kraken announced that it has secured a Markets in Crypto-Assets license from the Central Bank of Ireland.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong

  • Hong Kong’s government issued its “Policy Statement 2.0 on the Development of Digital Assets in Hong Kong,” focusing on legal and regulatory streamlining, people and partnership development, expansion of the suite of tokenized products, and advancement of use cases and cross-sectoral collaboration.

🇱🇺 Luxembourg

  • Coinbase announced that it has secured a Markets in Crypto-Assets license from the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier.

🇳🇱 Netherlands

  • Bitvavo announced that it has secured a Markets in Crypto-Assets license from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets.

***

The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the current or enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.

The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.