The financial regulator’s plan to reinterpret how federal securities laws apply to crypto assets is ”pending review” by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has forwarded its proposal to have most crypto assets not treated as securities under federal law to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. According to information available through the US General Services Administration, on Friday the SEC sent two proposed rules to the White House for review, including its interpretative notice from last week regarding which digital assets the agency could consider a security under federal law. As of Monday, government records showed the proposal as “pending review” by the White House, potentially changing how the SEC handles regulation and enforcement of digital assets. Read more
The deal reportedly focuses on stablecoin yield and interest-bearing stable tokens, a major pain point for the banking industry. Rumors are circulating that a tentative deal has been struck between the White House and US lawmakers on stablecoin yield, potentially moving the CLARITY crypto market structure bill forward. Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks, both members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, have reached an “agreement in principle,” according to a Friday Politico report. “I think what it will do is to allow us to protect innovation, but also gives us the opportunity to prevent widespread deposit flight,” Alsobrooks said, adding that the deal prohibits stablecoin yield on “passive balances.” Read more
The legislative recommendations highlight six policy areas, including copyright, energy and workforce development, while signaling a lighter regulatory stance. The Trump administration has released a national AI legislative framework for the United States, calling on Congress to establish a unified federal framework and warning that a patchwork of state laws could hinder innovation and competitiveness. The framework is structured around six core policy areas: protecting children and empowering parents, strengthening communities, intellectual property and creator rights, free speech protections, accelerating AI innovation and workforce development. At the center of the proposal is a push for a unified federal approach, with the administration urging Congress to preempt state-level AI laws it says could burden developers. Read more
White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt reportedly refocused crypto and bank lobby talks on a crypto bill to allow stablecoin rewards tied to transaction activity. The White House has reportedly refocused talks between crypto and bank lobbyists on limiting how stablecoin rewards should be paid in the third meeting between the two groups over a crypto market structure bill. Crypto and banking industry representatives met at the White House on Thursday for the third time in 16 days to discuss stablecoin provisions that have stalled the crypto bill, which the Senate is looking to pass. No agreement was reached on Thursday, but executives at Coinbase and Ripple said progress was made, as one of the White House’s crypto advisers urged a trade-off that would let third parties, such as exchanges, offer stablecoin rewards only on transaction activity, not on balances. Read more
Trump administration officials held a similar event last week to discuss stablecoin yield within a market structure bill under consideration in Congress. Update (Feb. 19 at 7:21 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from the Crypto Council for Innovation. The White House has held another meeting between representatives from the cryptocurrency and banking industries on a market structure bill under consideration in the US Senate, seeking to iron-out differences on stablecoin yield provisions, among other issues. In a Thursday Fox News interview, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that the company’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, attended the meeting with White House officials earlier in the day. The CEO’s comments came after unconfirmed reports that the Trump administration would follow its Feb. 10 meeting on the CLARITY Act, a bill to establish digital asset market structure. That meeting did not result in a deal on stablecoins. Read more
Crypto companies and platforms that provide stablecoin rewards have become a major point of contention in the CLARITY crypto market structure bill. The banking industry should not be threatened by crypto companies offering stablecoin yield to customers, and both sides must compromise on the issue, according to White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt. Witt said it was “unfortunate” that the issue of stablecoin yield has become a major point of contention between the crypto industry and banks, adding that crypto service providers sharing yield with customers does not threaten the banking industry’s business model or market share. He told Yahoo Finance: In the future, I don't think this is going to be an issue,” he continued, adding, “I think they're going to find opportunities to use these products and leverage them and offer new products to their customers and expand their businesses.” Read more
The meeting came more than two weeks after the Senate Banking Committee postponed a markup on the CLARITY Act, adding that everyone “remains at the table“ to work on the bill. Officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration met with representatives from the cryptocurrency and banking industry to discuss how to address stablecoin yield in the market structure bill under consideration in the Senate. In a Monday X post, The Digital Chamber, a crypto advocacy organization, said its CEO, Cody Carbone, and others had met at the White House to discuss provisions within the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, for which a markup was postponed by the Senate Banking Committee in January. Among the issues lawmakers are expected to address before returning to markup were tokenized equities, decentralized finance, ethics for elected officials investing in crypto, and stablecoin rewards. “Today's meeting at the White House was exactly the kind of progress needed to find a resolution to one of the biggest iss...
SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Mike Selig spoke on CNBC on Thursday as debate continues over stablecoin yield in the CLARITY Act. US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Mike Selig appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday to discuss the crypto market structure bill and a White House–hosted meeting scheduled for Monday. The bill was recently held up in the Senate, where it is undergoing committee review after being passed in the House of Representatives, with lawmakers working through unresolved issues on the Agriculture and Banking Committees. One of the central sticking points in the legislation is how stablecoin yield should be treated, an issue that has divided traditional banks and crypto companies. Coinbase recently withdrew support for the bill, citing concerns over several provisions, including those related to yield. Read more
The Nietzschean Penguin (PENGUIN) memecoin had a market capitalization of about $387,000 before the US White House published its post. The Nietzschean Penguin (PENGUIN) token, a memecoin launched on the Solana layer-1 blockchain network, surged by about 564% following a social media post from the United States White House. On Friday, the White House published a social media post on X of US President Donald Trump and a penguin holding hands and walking through the snow, which went viral. PENGUIN traded at a market capitalization of about $387,000 before the post and recorded $244 million in trading volume in the 24 hours after the post, according to SolanaFloor. Read more
US President Donald Trump’s plane was forced to return to an air base late Tuesday due to a “minor electrical issue” shortly after departing for Switzerland, the White House said. Air Force One returned to Joint Base Andrews out of an abundance of caution, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. It landed shortly after 0400 GMT. Journalists traveling with Trump reported that lights in the cabin went out briefly after takeoff. After returning to Andrews, Trump resumed his trip to the Davos forum early Wednesday. Trump and his entourage changed planes at Joint Base Andrews and took off again shortly after 0500 GMT, about two-and-a-half hours after his initial departure. With its classic blue and white livery, Air Force One is arguably the world’s most iconic plane and an instantly recognisable symbol of the US presidency. Trump has long been unhappy with the current Air Force One jets - two highly customized Boeing 747-200B series aircraft that entered service in 1990 under president George H.W Bush. Last year, ...