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The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new regulatory proposal marks a significant step forward from a set of “inapt” crypto rules to clearer and more enforceable digital asset regulations, according to Commissioner Hester M. Peirce.

A “whole generation has struggled with the SEC’s insistence” and the application of “a set of inapt rules to crypto,” but the SEC’s new crypto guidelines mark an important step toward “putting clear, sensible, enforceable rules in place for crypto offerings,” said Peirce in a statement released on Tuesday.

SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins also praised the initiative and said that the agency’s prior enforcement-heavy approach has “driven investment offshore, limiting the type of protections that we can provide investors here,” according to a separate statement. 

In a Tuesday notice, the SEC proposed new rules to create a “clear and fit-for-purpose framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets,” allowing entities to raise capital while preserving investor protections. 

The proposal came days after the US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which would provide a comprehensive framework for financial regulators overseeing the crypto industry. 

On July 27, Atkins told CNBC the agency was “ready, willing, and able to come out with rules“ on digital assets if the Senate failed to pass the CLARITY Act.   

Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital has cut its odds on the CLARITY Act’s chances of passing in 2026 to 10%, warning that multiple political issues remain unresolved and the Senate will have only about two to three weeks to pass it when it reconvenes on Sept. 14. 

Magazine: Why Meta is choosing partners over power in its 2026 stablecoin push

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Crypto-aligned political spending appears to have delivered tangible results in key US congressional primaries on Tuesday, with four of five candidates backed by ads from the Fairshake-affiliated PAC network winning or moving forward. The outcomes across Florida, Alaska, and Wyoming offer a snapshot of how aggressively the industry is trying to shape the next Congress ahead of the 2026 midterms.

According to reporting cited in the story, Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs together spent roughly $3.6 million on House and Senate-related campaigns in those three states—supporting candidates deemed favorable to the sector and, in one Florida case, backing a candidate who was also targeted by negative advertising financed by the same PAC.

Key takeaways

• Four of the five Fairshake-PAC-backed candidates won their primaries or advanced Tuesday.
• Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs spent about $3.6 million total on targeted ads across Alaska, Florida, and Wyoming.
• Florida’s 23rd district became a clear example of positive PAC spending: Protect Progress backed Lois Frankel with more than $150,000 in supportive media.
• Florida’s 24th district showed the sector’s presence in both directions: Oliver Gilbert won despite Protect Progress-negative ads exceeding $2 million.
• Lawmakers return in September as the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act is set for Senate action.

PAC-backed primary results in Florida, Alaska and Wyoming

In Florida’s 23rd congressional district, Democrat Lois Frankel won her primary after Protect Progress funded supportive media costing more than $150,000. In Alaska’s at-large congressional race, Republican Nick Begich was expected to advance after Defend American Jobs spent a combined $1.5 million across multiple campaigns supporting sector-friendly candidates.

Elsewhere, Defend American Jobs-supported candidates also performed well in their primaries. Republican Sydney Gruters won in Florida’s 16th congressional district, while Representative Harriet Hageman won the Wyoming Republican primary for the US Senate.

With primaries completed, the article indicates all four winners are likely to face opponents in November’s 2026 midterms. In other words, Tuesday’s results may function less as an end point and more as a test run for PAC-backed strategy heading into the general election phase.

Protect Progress-backed ads amid accusations of “crypto con” messaging

Florida’s 24th congressional district carried an especially pointed twist. The Democrat Oliver Gilbert defeated challengers Shevrin Jones and Kendrick Meek, securing 34.4% of the vote, even though—according to the story’s cited reporting—he was the target of more than $2 million in negative ads funded by Protect Progress.

The article also notes that Oliver Gilbert reportedly accused “Trump’s tech billionaire buddies” of backing “crypto con artists” through the Protect Progress advertising. The Miami Herald report cited in the story described ads that included fake Miami Herald headlines that allegedly misrepresented Gilbert’s policy positions, while a Protect Progress spokesperson maintained that “the underlying facts in our ad are true.”

Gilbert did not mention the crypto industry or the ads in his Tuesday night acceptance speech, according to the piece. That absence matters in two ways: first, it suggests that the candidate may be trying to frame the victory in terms other than PAC-driven controversy; second, it underscores that voters may not be treating PAC messaging as a decisive factor—or at least not in a way that prevents a favored candidate from advancing.

The episode highlights a key tension in crypto political strategy. PACs can spend heavily to shape narratives, but negative campaigning can produce unpredictable outcomes—especially when opposition candidates still win primaries despite the attempted pressure.

How big the Fairshake-linked spending is—and why it matters now

The article places Tuesday’s results against the scale of Fairshake’s political activity. It says Fairshake reported a $193 million war chest as of January, and that the committee was responsible for funding more than $130 million in ads supporting candidates it viewed as pro-crypto and opposing those it believed were hostile to the industry in the 2024 election cycle. As of June, it states Fairshake had spent more than $82 million on races ahead of the 2026 midterms.

In this context, the primary results can be read as more than local election trivia. PAC spending affects who gets positioned as the “party’s” candidate going into November. Candidates who benefit from high-budget messaging may also gain confidence and visibility that matters for fundraising, turnout operations, and general-election persuasion—even when the spending is controversial.

The story further reports that a Fairshake spokesperson, Geoff Vetter, said the PAC is “just getting started,” framing Tuesday’s outcomes as part of building what the spokesperson described as a larger pro-crypto bloc in Congress.

Congress timing and the CLARITY Act’s upcoming Senate step

Beyond the election results, the article ties the political calendar to legislative momentum. Both the US House and Senate are on recess until September. It also states the Senate is scheduled to address a cloture motion related to the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, legislation expected to establish broader regulatory coverage for digital assets.

The piece notes that the bill passed the House in July 2025 with bipartisan support on a 294-134 vote. It also highlights that Senate Democrats have been pushing for stronger ethics provisions linked to the Trump family’s reported crypto investments, and that these concerns could affect whether the Senate proceeds quickly—or at all—with CLARITY during the current session.

Under that framing, 2026 election outcomes could shift the balance of power. If Congress changes hands after November, the article suggests lawmakers could either advance or block legislation affecting the industry—including CLARITY—especially if the measure does not move before the 2027 session.

That linkage is important for investors and builders because it connects campaign spending to the mechanics of policy. Regulatory clarity is often treated as a long-term theme in crypto, but the legislative process runs on committee schedules, floor votes, and party control. Primary elections that change who appears on the November ballot can ultimately alter which version of “clarity” becomes law.

With September looming and the Senate’s cloture motion for CLARITY on the horizon, readers should watch whether crypto-focused PAC victories translate into legislative momentum—or whether ethics-linked disputes keep CLARITY stalled. Just as importantly, the Florida 24th district result suggests that even heavy negative advertising funded by the sector is not guaranteed to derail candidates, leaving uncertainty about how far political spending can reliably control outcomes.

Nethermind has ended its LayerZero verifier role and moved its cross-chain operations to Chainlink after reviewing the two infrastructure providers.

Nethermind said Wednesday that it had migrated away from its decentralized verifier network operations and joined Chainlink as a node operator and strategic technology provider.

Nethermind has joined the @chainlink Network as a node operator and strategic technology provider, helping secure CCIP and Data Feeds as part of a joint mission to bring institutions onchain securely. https://t.co/SAqDnCGHQP

— Nethermind (@Nethermind) August 19, 2026

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The company will help operate Chainlink’s network while supplying engineering tools, infrastructure services, and integration support to blockchain developers. Nethermind said the decision followed an “extensive review,” but it did not publish the review or explain which technical and operational factors determined the result.

As part of the change, Nethermind will concentrate its cross-chain work on Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol. CEO Daniel Celeda described the move as a long-term infrastructure decision tied to the responsibilities carried by node operators.

“Being a node operator carries real responsibility for a network’s reliability, and that’s consistent with how we approach every engineering commitment we make.”

Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the arrangement. Nethermind also did not provide a deadline for completing the migration, saying only that it would issue updates as the process continued.

Nethermind’s Chainlink role replaces LayerZero verification

Within LayerZero, decentralized verifier networks independently check whether messages sent between blockchains are genuine and unchanged. Applications can choose which DVNs verify their messages and set the number of approvals needed before a transaction proceeds.

LayerZero’s documentation describes each DVN as a combination of smart contracts and off-chain systems. Once a message leaves its source blockchain, the selected verifiers confirm its digital fingerprint before the message can be committed and executed on another network.

Nethermind had served as one of the infrastructure operators available under that model. Its own website previously listed LayerZero DVNs among the cross-chain services run through its globally distributed infrastructure.

Under the Chainlink arrangement, Nethermind will instead operate a node within Chainlink’s network. Chainlink says its CCIP system uses independent node operators, transaction limits and a separate risk-management network to monitor cross-chain activity.

Reportedly, the move represented a decision by a major LayerZero infrastructure operator to use Chainlink’s “secure-by-default architecture.” Because the description came from Chainlink, it does not independently establish that one system eliminates the technical, governance, or operational risks found in cross-chain infrastructure.

Celeda said Nethermind has historically made “deliberate, long-term bets” on infrastructure that it believes will support on-chain financial services. Consolidating the firm’s cross-chain work around CCIP followed the same approach, he added.

LayerZero migrations followed the $292 million rsETH attack

Nethermind’s decision arrives four months after hackers drained 116,500 rsETH, worth about $290 million at the time, from Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-powered bridge.

The April 18 attack involved a forged cross-chain message and a single-verifier configuration. The attacker created unbacked rsETH and later placed much of it into Aave lending positions to borrow wrapped Ether, spreading losses beyond the bridge itself.

In May, Kelp DAO announced an rsETH migration to Chainlink while disputing LayerZero’s account of the security setup. Kelp said LayerZero had known about its 1-of-1 verifier arrangement and had previously treated the configuration as secure.

LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino rejected Kelp’s claims. He said the protocol initially used a multi-verifier setup involving LayerZero Labs and Google before changing it to a single verifier, a configuration he said LayerZero had not recommended for production.

After the attack, LayerZero said it would stop approving messages for applications secured by only one verifier and would move affected projects toward configurations with multiple DVNs. LayerZero also attributed the incident to a compromised verifier rather than a flaw in its core messaging protocol.

Nethermind has not said whether the Kelp exploit triggered its review. Its announcement did not identify a security failure at LayerZero.

Other large projects have made comparable decisions since the attack. BitGo selected Chainlink in August as the exclusive cross-chain provider for Wrapped Bitcoin, replacing LayerZero across a WBTC ecosystem then valued at about $7.3 billion. As previously reported by crypto.news, the announcement brought the value covered by publicly disclosed LayerZero-to-Chainlink migrations to nearly $15 billion.

Aave adopted CCIP in July as the default system for cross-chain functions across its app and Stable Vaults. The protocol already used the service for GHO stablecoin transfers and governance messages before expanding the CCIP integration to deposits, withdrawals, vault rebalancing, and asset movements.

Wyoming adds a U.S. public-sector angle

For U.S. users, the closest public-sector comparison comes from Wyoming’s Frontier Stable Token, or FRNT. The Wyoming Stable Token Commission said on Aug. 18 that it had completed its migration from LayerZero to Chainlink following a state security review.

FRNT is issued by a U.S. public entity and is available on eight blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, and Avalanche. Wyoming holds its reserves in cash and short-term U.S. Treasury securities, while reserve income supports the state’s School Foundation Program.

The commission named disclosure practices and operational security among its concerns about LayerZero. Executive Director Anthony Apollo said CCIP was the only system assessed by the state that met its security and reliability requirements “across the board.”

Under a multiyear agreement, Chainlink has become the exclusive cross-chain provider for FRNT, and the state has deprecated its LayerZero bridge. The Wyoming security review was not released publicly, leaving its full criteria and technical findings unavailable.

LayerZero said it respected Wyoming’s decision and was assisting with the transition. A company spokesperson said LayerZero had strengthened its security approach in recent months but did not address the state commission’s specific disclosure concerns.

Nethermind supports core Ethereum infrastructure

Founded in 2017, Nethermind develops one of Ethereum’s main execution clients, software used by network nodes to process transactions and maintain Ethereum’s state. The firm employs more than 200 people across client development, cryptography, blockchain security, formal verification, and institutional infrastructure.

According to Nethermind, its software supports more than 16,000 Ethereum validators and over $5 billion in delegated assets. Its infrastructure clients and partners include EtherFi, Gnosis, Lido, StarkWare, World, and Arbitrum.

Nethermind also contributes to Ethereum and Starknet development while providing smart-contract audits, research, and engineering services to financial institutions and crypto protocols. The company said its new Chainlink role will include technical support for developers integrating cross-chain services, alongside its responsibility for operating network infrastructure.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has set a November target for completing its GENIUS Act regulations after receiving industry feedback on its proposed stablecoin framework.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported in an Aug. 19 X post that Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould disclosed the timetable during the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, an event presented by SALT and Kraken in Jackson Hole.

🚨NEW: On stage at @SALTConference in Wyoming, @USComptroller says digital asset chartering activity has increased eightfold since the Biden administration, calling the previous administration’s effort to eliminate risk “extremely shortsighted.”

He says the OCC expects to…

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— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) August 19, 2026

According to Terrett, Gould said the OCC would adjust the final regulations in response to comments from cryptocurrency companies and other industry participants. Her post did not identify which requirements the agency may revise or whether the November target applies to every rule that the OCC must issue under the GENIUS Act.

Gould also said the agency’s digital asset approval activity had increased eightfold compared with the Biden administration, according to the post. Terrett did not specify whether he was referring to charter approvals, licensing decisions, or another category of regulatory action.

Addressing the former administration’s approach, Gould reportedly described efforts to remove risk from the banking system as “extremely shortsighted.” The comptroller has previously argued that regulators should manage financial risks instead of trying to prevent banks from entering lawful business areas.

OCC rules would govern the stablecoin lifecycle

The OCC released its main GENIUS Act proposal on Feb. 25 before the notice appeared in the Federal Register on March 2. A 60-day comment period followed, giving banks, stablecoin companies, and other interested parties until May 1 to respond.

As crypto.news previously reported, the proposal covers the full operating cycle of a payment stablecoin, including issuance, reserve management, redemption, supervision, and the process for closing an issuer.

Under the proposed framework, issuers supervised by the OCC would have to maintain eligible reserve assets and redeem stablecoins at par. The draft also contains requirements for liquidity, risk controls, audits, reports, custody, and regulatory examinations.

Application procedures would apply to nonbank companies seeking recognition as federal qualified payment stablecoin issuers. Separate provisions cover subsidiaries of national banks and federal savings associations, certain state-qualified issuers under OCC authority, and foreign issuers seeking access to the American market.

The agency also proposed a capital and operational backstop, although the final amount and structure could change following public feedback. Additional amendments would place stablecoin issuers within existing OCC rules covering capital standards, assessments, enforcement proceedings, and corrective action.

Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering, and Office of Foreign Assets Control requirements were excluded from the February proposal. The OCC said it would handle the missing provisions through separate rulemaking coordinated with the Treasury Department.

During June, the agency issued proposals addressing anti-money-laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and sanctions risk management for permitted stablecoin issuers. Another proposal covering customer identification remains open for comments through Aug. 21, according to the OCC’s rulemaking tracker.

November target follows a missed statutory deadline

President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, 2025, creating the first federal US framework written specifically for payment stablecoins.

The law instructed federal regulators to issue implementing regulations within one year. However, the statutory deadline passed on July 18, 2026, without the OCC, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or National Credit Union Administration completing all required rules.

Ten proposed rulemakings were pending across federal agencies when the deadline expired, with several comment periods scheduled to continue beyond July. Regulators have not announced a common date for completing the remaining measures.

Under the statute, the payment stablecoin framework takes effect on Jan. 18, 2027, or 120 days after the primary federal regulators issue final implementing rules, whichever comes first. Finalizing the OCC’s proposal in November would not independently start the 120-day period unless the other responsible agencies also complete their regulations.

The law generally restricts US payment stablecoin issuance to permitted issuers. Digital asset service providers will also be unable to offer or sell noncompliant payment stablecoins to American customers once the applicable provisions take effect.

Federal and state regulators will divide responsibility according to the issuer’s structure. The OCC will oversee federally qualified nonbank issuers, stablecoin-issuing subsidiaries of national banks and federal savings associations, and certain state-qualified issuers that come under its authority.

Foreign issuers face another approval route before US platforms can distribute their stablecoins. The GENIUS Act requires them to operate under a comparable regulatory system and meet conditions involving reserves, supervision, and US regulatory access.

Treasury proposal defines access to US customers

Separate regulations proposed by the Treasury Department on Aug. 17 address when payment stablecoins are issued, offered, or sold in the United States. The definitions will help determine when an issuer requires a federal or state license and when a platform becomes subject to distribution restrictions.

Treasury also proposed standards for digital asset service providers that make foreign-issued stablecoins available to American users. The department opened the proposal for public comment and said responses would help it clarify the territorial reach of the law.

Under the proposal, companies would generally need authorization when their activities involve US customers or take place within the country. Treasury also requested feedback on transactions involving intermediaries, decentralized systems, and platforms that may serve customers in several jurisdictions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the department was working to implement the framework enacted by Congress while accepting comments from businesses and other interested parties. The proposal does not replace the OCC rule because the two measures cover different parts of the GENIUS Act.

OCC crypto charter applications have increased

The November timetable comes as the OCC processes more applications from companies planning to provide digital asset services under federal banking supervision.

In August, the agency said it had received 40 de novo bank applications during the previous 18 months, including proposed national trust banks. Gould compared the total with an annual average of fewer than four charter applications between 2011 and 2024.

The OCC’s public licensing tracker recently listed 13 pending digital asset applications. Applicants included Payward National Trust Company, Revolut Bank US, EDX Trust, Agora National Trust Bank, and PAYO Digital Bank.

As reported earlier in August, Gould said companies conducting legally permitted activities should have a path into the federal banking system. The OCC has said it often decides complete charter applications within 120 days, although preliminary approval does not authorize an institution to open.

Several cryptocurrency companies have received conditional national trust bank approvals since December 2025. The applicants have included Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets, while other companies have continued through the application process.

National trust banks can provide custody, fiduciary, settlement, and asset-servicing functions under OCC supervision. Their charters do not automatically allow them to accept ordinary customer deposits or provide conventional loans in the same manner as full-service commercial banks.

On Aug. 14, the OCC conditionally approved World Liberty Financial’s application to establish World Liberty Trust Company. The proposed institution would issue and redeem the USD1 stablecoin, manage its reserves, and provide custody services to institutional clients.

Preliminary approval allows World Liberty to organize the trust bank but does not permit it to begin operations. According to the OCC’s decision, the company must satisfy its preopening requirements, maintain at least $20 million in eligible capital, apply for Federal Reserve Bank stock, and receive written authorization before opening.

Burnham aims to bridge relations between the two nations