The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has elevated digital assets to a strategic priority, calling for regulatory clarity around blockchain technology, tokenization and crypto market infrastructure through 2030.

The shift was outlined in the agency’s draft Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2026–2030, published Tuesday. Alongside broader goals focused on capital formation, investor protection and agency modernization, the SEC dedicated an entire objective to digital assets and distributed ledger technology.

The agency said it aims to “provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets and distributed ledger technologies through a rational, coherent, and principled approach,” adding:

“Blockchain and crypto asset technologies have the potential to revolutionize America’s financial infrastructure.”

An excerpt from SEC Chair Paul Atkins’ message
in the agency’s draft Strategic Plan. Source: SEC

The strategic plan acknowledges that the growth of digital assets has outpaced existing regulations and calls for greater legal certainty for market participants. It also highlights tokenized offerings and onchain financial infrastructure as areas where the SEC intends to support compliant capital formation.

The document further references custody, trading and staking services, saying they should be able to operate under appropriate oversight without duplicative or conflicting regulatory requirements.

Related: SEC approves Paxos as ‘blockchain-native’ clearing agency

SEC reiterates the need for a clearer division of oversight with CFTC

Another key priority outlined in the draft plan is clarifying the division of responsibilities between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a longstanding issue in US digital asset regulation.

As part of its push for a more coherent regulatory framework, the SEC said establishing clear rules for digital assets “also involves clarifying jurisdictional questions between the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.”

The agencies have already taken steps toward closer coordination. In March, the SEC and CFTC signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation and information sharing as emerging technologies continue to reshape financial markets.

Source: Mike Selig

Jurisdictional boundaries between the SEC and CFTC are also a central issue in congressional deliberations over the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, a market structure bill that seeks to establish a regulatory framework for digital assets.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, the legislation is expected to expand the CFTC’s authority over large segments of the digital asset market. The bill advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee last month and is expected to proceed to the Senate floor for a full vote.

Related: Clarity Act risks repeat of Europe’s mistakes, crypto lawyer warns

Market anxiety surrounding recent institutional shifts and insider moves is merely typical bottom behavior, Bitmine Immersion (BMNR) Tom Lee told CoinDesk.

Lee dismissed the idea that Strategy selling 32 BTC signals trouble.

“Michael said he was planning to sell bitcoin, so he’s following through on what he was going to do,” Lee said in an interview on Tuesday. “At the end of the day, he’s still got 99.99% of his bitcoin, and he only makes money if bitcoin goes up.”

Saylor’s decision to sell bitcoin at an average price of $77,135, generating roughly $2.5 million to help fund preferred stock dividend payments, sparked unease. The transaction marked the corporate giant’s first bitcoin sale in nearly four years and prompted questions about whether one of the asset’s most prominent institutional advocates was changing course.

The firm still holds more than 843,700 BTC, meaning the disposal represented a microscopic 0.004% of its total reserves. Analysts across Wall Street have largely agreed that the transaction was economically immaterial to the core accumulation thesis.

Lee’s comments come alongside broader industry unease following the longest outflow streak (11 consecutive days) since U.S. spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) debuted in January 2024, worth $3.4 billion. Lee pointed out that these capital exits are a classic trailing indicator of a market cycle resetting.

“This is what you expected at the bottom,” Lee explained. “People sell at the bottom, right?”

Despite short-term negative price pressure and market panic, Lee confirmed that Bitmine’s broader macroeconomic playbook remains unchanged, including its ongoing strategy for other major layer-1 assets.

Lee also confirmed that the firm’s existing accumulation plans for ether (ETH) remain “on track.)

Bitmine ramped up ETH purchases last week, making its most significant since December. It bought 111,942 ether (ETH) worth around $237 million at current prices. That lifted the firm’s holdings to almost 5.4 million ETH, about 4.47% of ether’s circulating supply.

Read more: Saylor’s Strategy sold bitcoin for the first time since 2022. These firms are still buying

Top Democrats on three House and Senate committees called on the US Labor Department to halt its plans to allow digital assets and “alternative assets” to be held in Americans’ retirement plans. 

In a Tuesday letter, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Bobby Scott asked acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling to rescind the department’s proposal to allow private equity, digital assets, private credit, and other “alternative assets” to be included in 401(k) plans.

Source: Senate Banking Committee

They said the policy would “expose retirement accounts to exceptionally volatile assets, like digital currency,” citing a “lack of regulation and safeguards” putting many cryptocurrencies at risk of fraud.

As the ranking members of the Senate Banking Committee, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and House Committee on Education and Workforce, respectively, they said that the current administration had weakened enforcement of crypto fraud at financial agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“The application of securities laws to crypto assets is rapidly evolving, and many securities law protections that investors have for public securities may not be available for crypto,” said the letter. “This lack of sufficient guardrails is likely to harm investors.”

Related: Basic adds VanEck crypto ETFs to 401(k) plans amid US retirement shift

The proposed policy, announced by the Labor Department in March, followed an August 2025 executive order from US President Donald Trump directing agencies to “democratize access to alternative assets,” including crypto. According to the Investment Company Institute, Americans held about $10.1 trillion in 401(k) plans as of Dec. 31.

Trump family conflicts of interest cloud 401(k) order and CLARITY Act

Sanders, Warren and Scott questioned whether the Labor Department policy would financially benefit anyone in the current administration, given Trump was “rife with conflicts of interest in this area,” including his family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial.

Lawmakers have made similar arguments in proposing amendments to a digital asset market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, expected to be addressed in the US Senate soon. Democrats in that chamber have said that they would not vote for any legislation that doesn’t contain provisions on ethics.

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Bitcoin slipped below the psychologically important $70,000 level on Tuesday, trading around $69,300, as derivatives positioning reached some of the most elevated levels of the current cycle.

Open interest across bitcoin futures markets has climbed to approximately 773,000 BTC, a level last seen only a handful of times on record, according to Coinglass data. Previous peaks have occurred during local market tops. The current positioning suggests leveraged traders are betting on a quick price rebound rather than trimming risk.

That growing leverage is also reflected in perpetual futures funding rates, which have risen to roughly 10% annualized, according to Coinglass data. Positive funding means long traders are paying shorts to maintain positions. As bitcoin continues to fall, long leverage liquidations occur, sending the price lower.

Broader sentiment remains apathetic. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index continues to signal fear, while the Coinbase Premium Index remains deeply negative at around -100. The metric measures the price difference between bitcoin on Coinbase and offshore exchanges, with a negative reading often indicating weaker demand from U.S. institutional and spot investors — a trend clearly reflected in the continuing outflows from the U.S.-based spot BTC ETFs.

The divergence between leveraged bullish positioning and deteriorating spot demand comes as bitcoin remains largely uncorrelated to broader risk assets, with AI and software stocks continuing to push to fresh highs.

The United Kingdom should press ahead with stablecoin regulation but avoid rules that make a pound sterling stablecoin market commercially unworkable, a House of Lords committee warned in a report released Wednesday.

The cross-party Financial Services Regulation Committee said the UK was “lagging behind” the United States and the European Union and that the absence of a clear regime has “suppressed stablecoin development and investment in the UK,” despite the growth of global US dollar-pegged tokens such as USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC).

While backing much of the Bank of England (BoE) and Financial Conduct Authority’s proposed framework, the committee warned that some measures risk undermining the viability and competitiveness of UK-issued stablecoins.

The report backs requirements for fiat-referenced stablecoins to be backed 1:1 by high-quality assets and a proposed BoE backstop lending facility for systemic issuers.

However, it singles out several elements of the Bank’s November 2025 consultation as potentially damaging, warning that a requirement for systemic issuers to hold at least 40% of their backing assets in unremunerated central bank deposits has attracted “considerable criticism” and could “impact negatively on the viability of stablecoin issuers and the international competitiveness of the UK market.”

Proposed temporary holding limits for businesses and individuals are also flagged as measures that could “unnecessarily inhibit the growth of GBP stablecoins” and prove impractical to implement.

Related: UK FCA seeks feedback on guidance for crypto rules ahead of 2027 rollout

Interest bans and rewards uncertainty cloud UK tokens

Peers also turn to the politically sensitive question of returns. The Bank’s draft regime would prohibit remuneration for coinholders of sterling-denominated systemic stablecoins, putting the UK on a similar footing to the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which bars stablecoin issuers from paying interest to holders. The US GENIUS Act prohibits payment stablecoin issuers from paying interest, though US debate continues over whether exchanges and other intermediaries can offer rewards.

House of Lords Stablecoin Report. Source: House of Lords

The committee presents payment-focused stablecoins primarily as instruments for fast, low-cost transactions rather than as investment products. However, it warns that the combination of strict reserve rules and a ban on interest or other remuneration could weigh on the “business viability” and competitiveness of UK-issued tokens, especially while it remains unclear whether card-style rewards or other non-interest incentives will be allowed.

Inquiry evidence highlights risks and UK’s strategic choice

The conclusions follow months of evidence gathering in which the committee pressed industry and academic witnesses on whether stablecoins can move much beyond “on and off-ramps into crypto,” challenged them on financial stability, bank funding and consumer protection risks, and probed sharply divergent views on the US GENIUS Act’s approach to non-bank issuers.

While stressing that the expansion of stablecoin markets “must not create new opportunities for illicit activity to flourish,” the Lords argue the UK should aim to nurture, not just police, a pound-denominated stablecoin sector.

They urge His Majesty’s Treasury, the Bank of England and the FCA to stick to existing timelines, clarify how dual regulation of systemic issuers will work in practice, and recalibrate measures such as holding limits and reserve requirements so that sterling stablecoins can “compete with other forms of payment in the UK” rather than be regulated out of relevance.

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