Fortitude Mining, a Zcash-focused cryptocurrency miner backed by Digital Currency Group, has named former Hut 8 CEO Jaime Leverton as its new chief executive as it moves toward going public. The leadership change comes alongside progress on a proposed merger with HeartSciences, which would take Fortitude to the Nasdaq subject to approval.

Leverton is set to succeed current CEO Andrea Childs on Sept. 21, with Childs transitioning to chief operating officer. The company says the transition reflects its evolution from a private mining operator into a vertically integrated platform preparing for a public-market listing.

Key takeaways

• Jaime Leverton will become Fortitude Mining’s CEO on Sept. 21, replacing Andrea Childs, who will shift to chief operating officer.
• Fortitude has mined 72,696 ZEC in the first half of 2026, representing about 28% of total Zcash network output for the period.
• The firm reported $20.9 million in revenue for Q2 and operates 60+ megawatts of power capacity across seven US sites.
• Under a planned merger with HeartSciences, Fortitude is expected to combine and trade on Nasdaq under the ticker TUDE, pending approval.
• ZEC has rallied sharply recently, supported by disclosures from Paradigm about its ZEC holdings and investment in Zcash development efforts.

Executive transition as the miner readies for a public listing

Fortitude Mining’s management reshuffle is closely tied to its wider strategic path. Earlier this year, the company announced a proposed combination with HeartSciences, with the transaction currently expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. If completed, the combined business is anticipated to list on Nasdaq under the ticker TUDE, subject to regulatory and corporate approvals.

The CEO handoff also signals continuity in execution. Leverton previously served as CEO of Hut 8, where she oversaw the Bitcoin miner’s merger with US Bitcoin Corp. and its move toward becoming a US-domiciled, Nasdaq-listed company. That background matters in this context: miners that pursue public-market access often need to translate operating metrics—such as hashrate, energy sourcing, and production—into investor-focused reporting and governance.

Childs will move to chief operating officer, keeping responsibility for day-to-day performance while Leverton steps in to lead the company through the market-facing phase of the transaction.

Operating footprint and production levels

Fortitude’s scale remains anchored in dedicated power infrastructure. The miner operates more than 60 megawatts of power capacity across seven sites located in South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas and New York. The geographic spread can be important for operational resilience, particularly in mining where downtime and electricity costs directly affect profitability.

On output, Fortitude reported that it mined 72,696 ZEC in the first half of 2026. The company says this amounted to roughly 28% of the network’s total production during the period—an indicator of its role in Zcash block production and the size of its contribution to circulating issuance.

Financially, Fortitude reported $20.9 million in revenue for the second quarter. Those figures, coupled with its production share, will likely be scrutinized as part of the merger process, because investors typically expect clarity on the relationship between hashrate, power utilization, and revenue over time.

New mining hardware expected to boost equihash hashrate

Fortitude is also expanding capacity through additional equipment procurement. In July, the company agreed to purchase 9,000 Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro machines. The deal is expected to add 7.56 GSol/s of equihash hashrate, with shipments expected in the fourth quarter.

For a network that relies on equihash-based proof-of-work, incremental hashrate growth is a key operational lever. It can influence how quickly Fortitude can convert capital expenditures into production output—especially if network difficulty and electricity prices remain stable. Still, readers should note that the real economic impact will depend on installation timing, power costs at each site, and how Zcash difficulty adjusts as more hashrate comes online.

Fortitude, which has been mining ZEC since 2019, also launched as a vertically integrated mining platform in 2025. With that setup, the company’s stated goal appears to be tightening control over the full operational chain—power sourcing, mining operations and scaling—while positioning itself for greater visibility in the public markets.

ZEC rally gains momentum as Paradigm discloses holdings

While Fortitude navigates corporate and capacity developments, Zcash’s token has been drawing fresh attention. ZEC continued to rally on Thursday, trading around $1,424, according to CoinGecko. The token’s move has been dramatic: it is up about 185% over the past 30 days and more than 2,600% over the past year, CoinGecko data shows.

The latest upside pressure was linked to a disclosure from Paradigm. In a report referenced by Cointelegraph, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang said Wednesday that the crypto investment firm holds ZEC and is an investor in the Zcash Open Development Lab. Huang described Zcash as a “private complement to Bitcoin” and argued that long-term funding for privacy technology is increasingly important as artificial intelligence and quantum computing advance.

The narrative is relevant beyond price action. Zcash’s development model includes an inflation-funded developer fund, and that structure has historically been central to how the project argues it can sustain privacy research over time. In other words, investor backing for the ecosystem can reinforce confidence in ongoing work—at least from the standpoint of market participants focused on long-run technical viability.

Broader performance in privacy coins has also been notable. As of Sept. 6, data cited by Glassnode indicates the privacy sector was up 213% from Bitcoin’s October 2025 peak, while other sectors tracked by Glassnode were still below that level at the time. Glassnode data further attributed 62% of the privacy sector’s market capitalization to ZEC, while a cap-weighted basket of privacy tokens excluding ZEC was still up 85% over the year, according to the same figures shared by Glassnode on X.

For traders and investors, the key watchpoint is whether these catalysts—continued institutional visibility into privacy infrastructure and sustained network participation by miners—translate into durable demand rather than short-lived speculative momentum.

As Fortitude heads toward its proposed HeartSciences merger and hardware shipments approach later in 2026, market participants will likely focus on the timing of public-market steps, the company’s ability to convert added hashrate into consistent production, and how ZEC’s recent momentum holds up alongside ongoing disclosures about privacy-focused investment.

Bitcoin has struggled to hold an advance above $76,800 after U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 196,000, strengthening the case for the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates elevated after its latest increase.

US jobless claims strengthen the case for higher rates

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that initial claims for unemployment benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 196,000 in the week ending Sep. 12, down from 206,000 a week earlier.

Economists had expected 207,000 claims, making the reading stronger than forecast. The four-week moving average, which smooths out some of the changes in the weekly figures, declined to 203,250 from 206,000.

Initial claims track new applications for unemployment benefits and provide an early view of layoffs across the United States. Although the Labor Department notes that weekly figures can be volatile, a decline generally indicates that employers are retaining workers.

For Federal Reserve officials, the latest reading adds to evidence that the U.S. labor market has remained firm despite elevated borrowing costs. Policymakers have less pressure to lower rates when job losses are limited, particularly while inflation remains above the central bank’s 2% goal.

The report arrived one day after the Federal Open Market Committee raised its target range by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00%. All 12 voting members backed the decision, which delivered the first U.S. rate increase since 2023.

In its statement, the Fed said economic activity was expanding at a “solid pace,” while domestic spending remained resilient and capital investment stayed robust. Officials also said job gains had kept pace with growth in the workforce and that the unemployment rate had changed little.

Inflation, however, remained elevated, according to the central bank. Officials said the rate increase would support a timelier return to the Fed’s 2% inflation target.

Another Fed hike could pressure Bitcoin

The Fed’s updated projections placed the median federal funds rate at 4.1% by the end of 2026, indicating that policymakers expect another quarter-point increase before the year closes.

Lower unemployment claims could support that path because the data gives officials fewer reasons to worry that tighter policy is causing a rapid decline in employment. Higher rates also increase the yield available on U.S. government debt, which can reduce demand for assets that do not produce interest.

For American crypto investors, another increase would raise the cost of leverage while keeping Treasury yields competitive with Bitcoin and other risk-sensitive holdings. A firm U.S. dollar, which can accompany tighter monetary policy, may also create pressure for dollar-priced assets.

Goldman Sachs has revised its forecast to include another 25-basis-point increase this year, according to the original report. The bank changed its call after Fed officials delivered mixed messages about whether more tightening would be required to return inflation to target.

Before the decision, crypto.news examined the event risk surrounding the Fed meeting and reported that market-implied odds of a quarter-point hike had climbed from 69.4% to 86.5%. The report linked the repricing in part to an increase in oil prices, which had added to inflation concerns.

Bitcoin price gives back its post-data gain

Following the jobless claims release, Bitcoin initially rose about 1.25% to $76,800 before surrendering the advance. BTC later traded near $76,051, down roughly 1% from its level an hour earlier, according to the supplied market data.

The reversal followed a volatile week in which Bitcoin briefly approached $80,000 before falling below $75,000. In previous market coverage, BTC traded near $76,200 after reaching $79,800 on Sep. 11 and dropping to $74,944 on Sep. 15.

Technical readings in that report showed Bitcoin below its 20-day simple moving average at $78,104. The daily Chaikin Money Flow reading stood at minus 0.11, while the four-hour relative strength index remained below the neutral 50 level, pointing to weak momentum and net capital outflows during the decline.

The same analysis placed a major downside liquidation cluster near $74,600 and an upside liquidity area around $77,700. Bitcoin’s reaction to the jobless claims kept the price between those two zones, leaving neither buyers nor sellers with a confirmed break.

U.S. political developments have also weighed on the asset. The Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act earlier in the week after the motion received 50 votes in favor and 49 against, short of the 60 required. The proposal would have established how the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission divide oversight of digital assets.

Bitcoin needs to clear $77,500 for stronger momentum

Analyst Michaël van de Poppe identified $77,500 as the first important resistance area after Bitcoin bounced from approximately $75,584. His chart placed another resistance range between $80,500 and $81,200.

“Bitcoin facing resistance here. If you’d want to see some momentum, you’d need to break through this resistance and then we’re of towards the highs,” Van de Poppe wrote on X.

A move through $77,500 would place Bitcoin closer to its 20-day moving average at $78,104 before the asset could test the heavier supply zone above $80,500. Failure to recover the first resistance level would keep attention on the recent support area around $75,584 and the liquidation concentration near $74,600.

Analyst Ted Pillows separately said Bitcoin was “just one god candle away from hitting a higher high.” His chart placed the relevant higher-high area close to $82,000 and showed Ethereum and Solana approaching similar technical levels on their respective charts.

Genius Foundation has launched Genius.fun on BNB Chain, giving crypto communities a platform to create tokens, build treasuries with tokenized public-company shares, and coordinate shareholder campaigns.

In a Sep. 17 press release shared with crypto.news, Genius Foundation said that the new launchpad connects community-created tokens with tokenized public equities, allowing participants to pool capital around a company and accumulate exposure to its shares.

The platform presents the model as a way for online groups to move beyond meme-based trading and organize around corporate ownership. According to the Foundation, communities could use an accumulated position to support shareholder proposals, seek board representation, run an activist campaign or pursue an acquisition.

Such actions would require more than holding a community token. The Foundation said eligible tokenized positions may be redeemed for the underlying equity, but the rights available to users would depend on the structure of each paired product and its issuer.

Genius.fun links token launches with tokenized shares

Rather than offering only a standard meme-token launch, Genius.fun allows creators to choose a trading pair that may include BNB, USDT, USDC, or tokenized assets from Ondo, bStocks, xStocks and 4Stocks. More markets are expected through a product called gPerps, according to the announcement.

Trading activity is intended to help a community build a treasury that can acquire additional assets. Genius Foundation said the approach could turn online attention into a pool of capital tied to real-world companies, although it did not disclose how treasury decisions, voting power, or asset custody would be managed for each community.

Creators may collect up to 1.25% of trading fees generated by their tokens. Another 0.25% is directed toward token buybacks and supply locking, according to the platform’s stated fee model.

From the token’s trading page, users can monitor its progress from launch through graduation. A token becomes eligible to move to PancakeSwap once it reaches 15 BNB, with the decentralized exchange serving as Genius.fun’s graduation partner.

The model differs from simply buying a token that tracks a company’s share price. An economic interest tied to a stock does not always give its holder voting rights, access to dividends, or recognition on the company’s official shareholder register. The exact legal claim depends on how the token is issued and whether it is backed by the underlying security.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently addressed the same distinction when he called for full backing of tokenized equities with real securities. Coinbase’s offshore structure holds underlying shares through a special-purpose company and a regulated U.S. broker, while verified holders can request redemption. Its products remain unavailable to U.S. persons and are not registered under the U.S. Securities Act.

Community ownership could support activist campaigns

Genius.fun frames community tokens as capital-formation tools that can organize people around a selected public company. After launching a market, participants could grow its treasury and use the accumulated share position to seek influence.

At a large enough scale, the Foundation said a community could request a board seat, coordinate an activist campaign or attempt a hostile takeover. Investment banks, private-equity firms, hedge funds and specialist activist investors have traditionally led such transactions.

A hostile takeover generally involves an effort to gain control of a company without approval from its existing board. Genius.fun has not announced a specific company targeted by its users, nor has the Foundation said that any community has accumulated enough shares to begin such a process.

The launch announcement instead describes hostile takeovers as a possible future use. Any campaign involving a listed U.S. company would still face securities laws, ownership disclosure rules, corporate governance procedures and limits contained in the company’s governing documents.

Armaan Kalsi, CEO of Shuttle Labs, described the launch as a new form of crypto-based corporate coordination.

“We’re excited to see what happens when crypto native communities launch capital formation vehicles with 2 clicks and, for example, potentially do things like vie for board seats,” Kalsi said.

He added that a capital-formation tool able to influence companies in the physical economy was “inherently exciting.”

U.S. rules make ownership rights central

For American investors, the difference between a fully backed share token and a synthetic product is especially important because price exposure alone does not establish corporate ownership.

On Sep. 17, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission granted five-year relief for eligible tokenized securities venues. The conditional framework permits approved platforms to trade tokenized National Market System stocks through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools.

Under the SEC order, an eligible tokenized share must carry the same rights and privileges as the conventional share it represents. Synthetic products that merely track a stock through a derivative do not qualify for the relief, according to the regulator.

Venues must also notify an issuer before listing a tokenized version of its stock and cannot proceed if the company objects. Smart contracts must be public and auditable, while trading in the token must stop when the primary exchange halts the underlying security.

The SEC’s conditions matter to the corporate-action model proposed by Genius.fun. A community seeking voting influence would need ownership rights connected to the underlying shares, not only a token whose price follows the stock. Genius Foundation did not state whether the platform would seek access to the SEC exemption or make its services available to U.S. users.

American ownership rules can also require public filings once an investor or coordinated group crosses certain thresholds. Whether members of a decentralized community would be treated as a group would depend on their agreements, conduct, and the facts of a particular campaign; the launch announcement did not provide a legal structure for such cases.

Tokenized stocks are adding on-chain uses

Alongside ownership experiments, crypto platforms are building other services around tokenized equities. Kraken recently introduced xStocks vaults for SPYx, QQQx and NVDAx, which track the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, Invesco QQQ ETF and Nvidia shares.

Kraken allocates deposited tokens to on-chain lending markets through an embedded, noncustodial wallet. The initial displayed annual percentage yields were about 2% for SPYx and QQQx and 1.8% for NVDAx, with a 25% performance fee already deducted from the quoted rates.

Genius.fun is taking a different route by combining token creation, trading fees and community treasuries with a proposed path toward shareholder action. Genius Foundation said users can begin by creating a token, selecting a trading pair and building a treasury around the company they want to influence.

The Cayman-based Foundation describes its work as infrastructure for permissionless markets, collective ownership and decentralized economic coordination. Genius.fun is live on BNB Chain, while token graduation takes place through PancakeSwap after the platform’s 15 BNB threshold is met.

CleanSpark shares have gained 4.73% to close near $13.40 after the Bitcoin miner proposed a $2.227 billion secured notes offering to finance construction at its Sandersville data center campus.

CleanSpark said on Sep. 17 that its wholly owned subsidiary, CSDC Finance I LLC, plans to sell $2.227 billion of senior secured notes through a private placement.

The notes would mature in 2031, with most of the proceeds directed toward completing CleanSpark’s Sandersville data center in Georgia. According to the company, the financing would also reimburse certain equity investments already made in the project and create debt-service reserve accounts.

Rather than issuing the debt directly, CleanSpark has placed the proposed transaction within a subsidiary tied to the Sandersville project. CSRE Properties Sandersville LLC, another wholly owned unit, would guarantee the notes.

CleanSpark said the debt would also receive a first-priority lien on most assets belonging to the issuer and the property company. Under the proposed structure, the Sandersville assets would therefore serve as collateral for the financing.

CleanSpark debt plan avoids announced share conversion

For CleanSpark investors, the structure differs from a convertible bond or new share sale because the announced notes carry no right to be exchanged for CLSK stock. The company’s proposal therefore does not create direct share dilution through conversion under the terms disclosed on Thursday.

Debt financing still places repayment and interest obligations on the borrower, while pledged assets may be available to creditors if the issuer defaults. CleanSpark has not yet disclosed the notes’ interest rate, issue price, or final closing date in its public announcement.

Completion of the private placement remains dependent on market conditions and other customary requirements, according to the company. CleanSpark also said there was no assurance that the transaction would close under the proposed terms or at all.

If the amount raised is insufficient to finish the Sandersville facility, CleanSpark will provide a customary completion guarantee. Under that agreement, the Nasdaq-listed parent would supply the issuer with the additional money needed to complete the project, subject to the guarantee’s final terms.

The guarantee adds a direct obligation for CleanSpark even though CSDC Finance I would issue the notes. Investors will need the final offering documents to assess the interest cost, covenant package, construction timetable, and conditions governing access to the reserve accounts.

For U.S. shareholders, the financing adds project-level debt exposure to a company whose common shares trade on Nasdaq under the CLSK ticker. Since the placement is private, the notes will not be offered through a general public securities sale under the announced structure.

CleanSpark stock finished Thursday at approximately $13.40, gaining 4.73% during the session. The move followed the financing announcement, though the trading data alone does not establish that the notes proposal caused the advance.

Sandersville funding supports a long-term data center lease

Construction financing for Sandersville follows CleanSpark’s July announcement of a 20-year infrastructure lease with an unnamed investment-grade global technology company. CleanSpark said at the time that the agreement covered 175 megawatts of compute capacity at the Georgia campus.

Under CleanSpark’s July announcement, the initial lease term could generate $6.6 billion in contracted revenue. Two optional five-year extensions could increase the total contract value to $11.6 billion if the tenant exercises both options.

The company expects the initial Sandersville capacity to become available beginning in the fourth quarter of 2027. CleanSpark has not publicly identified the customer, meaning reports naming Meta as the tenant remain unconfirmed by the company’s financing announcement or its original lease disclosure.

CleanSpark acquired the Sandersville Bitcoin mining facility from Mawson Infrastructure Group in October 2022. At the time, the purchase included nearly 6,500 mining machines representing about 560 petahashes per second of computing power.

The company said in 2022 that the Georgia site had a planned capacity of 230 megawatts. Its later data center agreement assigned 175 megawatts to high-performance computing, placing the campus at the center of its expansion beyond revenue generated from Bitcoin mining.

CleanSpark’s corporate website now describes the company as a large-scale digital infrastructure developer with a U.S. portfolio serving Bitcoin mining and compute-intensive workloads. The revised description follows several quarters in which management discussed using the company’s land and power holdings for artificial intelligence infrastructure.

For former mining sites, access to power and grid connections can reduce part of the preparation needed for data center development. CleanSpark’s disclosures, however, show that converting Sandersville still requires more than $2 billion in proposed financing and a completion commitment from the parent company.

CleanSpark’s Bitcoin production rose in August

Alongside its data center plans, CleanSpark has continued to operate one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining businesses in the United States. Its August operational update showed production of 593 BTC, up from 586 BTC in July rather than slightly lower, as stated in the original report.

August output lifted CleanSpark’s 2026 production to 4,903 BTC through the end of the month. The company had reported 4,310 BTC produced through July, with an average daily output of 18.91 BTC during that month.

CleanSpark held 13,703 BTC as of Aug. 31, according to its latest operational figures. Its treasury had contained 13,931 BTC at the end of July, producing a monthly decline of 228 BTC even as the company mined another 593 BTC.

The July update said CleanSpark sold 229 BTC on the spot market and delivered 350 BTC under call-option contracts. Including option premiums, the company reported an average realized price of $66,133 per Bitcoin for the transactions.

Bitcoin was trading near $76,300 on Sep. 17 after recovering from a decline toward $75,000, according to recent market coverage from crypto.news. The report placed nearby resistance around $77,000 and $78,000 while daily momentum remained under pressure.

Mining economics had already weakened earlier in the summer as the value produced by each unit of computing power declined. In June, miner profitability fell as hashprice dropped by nearly 18% over 30 days to about $30.77 per petahash per second.

CleanSpark reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $198.6 million for the three months ended June 30, up from $104.1 million a year earlier. According to its quarterly results, the company recorded a net loss of $236.2 million, compared with net income of $379.4 million in the same period of 2025.

The quarterly filing attributed much of the loss to changes in the fair value of the company’s Bitcoin holdings. CleanSpark also reported $933.3 million in cash and Bitcoin as of June 30, while total debt stood at $1.8 billion before the newly proposed Sandersville notes offering.

The CFTC has granted conditional broker-registration relief to passive software providers under a no-action position that sets 10 requirements for developers offering tools connected to regulated derivatives trading.

CFTC relief covers passive derivatives software

The CFTC’s Market Participants Division said in a Sep. 17 release that it had issued a no-action position for providers of passive software used to facilitate derivatives trading.

Under the position, division staff will not recommend that the Commission take enforcement action against a qualifying provider or its relevant personnel for failing to register as an introducing broker or an associated person of an introducing broker. The protection applies only to activities covered by the letter and remains subject to its stated conditions.

Software providers can qualify when their products allow users to trade with registered futures commission merchants, introducing brokers and designated contract markets. Users must remain customers or direct members of the regulated entity handling their transactions rather than becoming customers of the software provider.

Although the headline refers to crypto developers, the CFTC’s language covers passive software providers involved in regulated derivatives markets. Crypto wallet developers and other digital-asset software companies may fall within the framework when their tools connect users to eligible derivatives products, but the position does not provide blanket protection for every developer or crypto application.

Staff Letter 26-25 makes the position available to qualifying providers after the agency gave similar treatment under Staff Letter 26-09. The earlier letter addressed a request involving software that gave users access to regulated derivatives while leaving trade execution, customer accounts, and asset control with registered firms.

The new position is not a formal exemption from the Commodity Exchange Act. According to the CFTC’s description of its staff-letter process, a no-action letter means the issuing division will not recommend enforcement for failure to comply with a specified legal provision. It does not change the law or bind other divisions in the same manner as a Commission rule.

Ten conditions limit the registration relief

Among the 10 conditions, a provider and the personnel engaged in covered activities cannot be subject to statutory disqualification. Such disqualifications can include certain convictions, regulatory orders, or other legal findings that prevent a person from taking part in registered derivatives businesses.

Customers using the software must have a direct relationship with the registered exchange or intermediary serving them. They must also be able to access the registrant without using the provider’s software, which prevents the developer from becoming the customer’s only route to the regulated firm.

The provider cannot publish advertising or promotional material that would require advance approval from the National Futures Association if the business were registered as an introducing broker. While developers can market their software within the letter’s limits, the condition restricts conduct resembling regulated brokerage promotion.

To use the position, a provider must file a notice with the Market Participants Division and agree to satisfy every condition. The filing must also include consent to the CFTC’s jurisdiction to investigate the provider and pursue enforcement over violations connected to its covered activities.

Relief will remain in place until the effective date of any Commission rule or guidance dealing with how introducing-broker requirements apply to the covered software activity. A future rulemaking could therefore replace the staff position with a permanent framework or impose a different registration test.

The registration question matters because introducing brokers normally solicit or accept orders involving futures, commodity options, swaps, or certain retail commodity transactions without holding customer funds. Passive software can perform parts of that process through code even when its developer never controls assets or executes the transaction itself.

As previously explained by crypto.news in its review of the CFTC registration structure, introducing brokers sit alongside futures commission merchants, designated contract markets, clearing organizations and other regulated participants in the U.S. derivatives system. Each category carries separate registration, conduct and compliance duties.

CFTC action gives U.S. developers a defined route

For developers serving U.S. customers, the position provides a way to offer qualifying tools without immediately taking on the full duties attached to introducing-broker registration. Access remains tied to CFTC-regulated businesses, while developers must stay inside the limits covering customer relationships, marketing and regulatory oversight.

American users do not receive permission to trade products that would otherwise be unavailable to them. The letter concerns the registration status of the software provider, not whether a particular derivative, exchange or customer transaction complies with U.S. law.

The CFTC also retains its enforcement powers outside the narrow registration issue covered by the letter. Fraud, manipulation, unlawful solicitation and breaches of the conditions can still trigger regulatory action, while registered exchanges and intermediaries remain responsible for their own duties under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Regulated crypto derivatives already sit inside the agency’s jurisdiction. Futures, options, and swaps tied to digital commodities must trade through the applicable U.S. regulatory structure, and the CFTC has previously brought cases against offshore platforms accused of offering leveraged crypto products to American customers without registration.

For passive wallet and interface providers, control over customer property and trade decisions can be central to whether their conduct remains within the letter. A developer taking custody, recommending trades, generating explicit buy or sell signals, or acting as the customer-facing intermediary could present facts outside the passive model addressed by the CFTC.

SEC and CFTC use existing powers after CLARITY setback

The CFTC announcement arrived on the same day that the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a separate five-year trading exemption for eligible venues offering tokenized National Market System stocks.

Under the SEC order, approved venues may use permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools for tokenized stock trading. Covered tokens must provide the same rights and privileges as the traditional shares they represent, while synthetic products that merely track a stock’s price do not qualify.

Eligible venues face limits on supported stock symbols and trading activity. Smart contracts must be public and auditable, and trading in a tokenized share must stop when the primary exchange halts the underlying stock. The SEC also requested public comments as it considers possible changes to the framework.

Both agency actions have followed the Senate’s failure to advance the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act. Senators rejected cloture on Sep. 15 by 50–49, leaving the motion 10 votes short of the 60 required to begin debate.

The bill sought to divide digital-asset oversight between the SEC and CFTC while establishing registration routes for exchanges and other intermediaries. Seven Senate Democrats who opposed cloture have since reopened negotiations, although no second procedural vote has been scheduled.

Separate from the market-structure bill, the House Ways and Means Committee advanced the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act in a 38–5 vote on Sep. 16. The proposal addresses staking rewards, digital-asset lending, wash-sale rules, dealer treatment and a proposed exemption for certain network and transaction fees of up to $10.

Without art fairs, today’s highly globalized and commercialized art world would not exist. While many galleries complain about the high cost and grueling travel required to participate in international trade shows, they also rely on them to expand their clientele and turn buying art into an event. As chief executive of Art Basel, the most famous brand in art fairs, Noah Horowitz understands this paradox well. Since he took on the role in 2022, he has doubled down on Art Basel’s core business, most visibly by allying with the Qatari royal family to launch the firm’s fifth annual fair in Doha this past February and shepherding its Paris show to the historic Grand Palais in 2024. But he has also expanded the brand’s reach in forward-looking ways, including by augmenting its fairs with the dedicated digital art section Zero 10 and a retail shop for branded and artist-created merchandise, as well as diversifying Art Basel’s partnerships lineup with big names like Miu Miu, Samsung, and Qatar Airways. “I felt there was more Art Basel could do proactively and creatively… to meet an evolving market where it was,” Horowitz says. Now, he and his team are “working double time” to get there. 

US authorities on Thursday announced sanctions against Iranian crypto exchange BitBank, accusing it of processing Bitcoin paid by ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said that as of June, the Hormuz Safe Marine Services Authority used BitBank to transfer payments it received to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Treasury alleged it is part of the architecture used by Iranian financier Babak Zanjani to move hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the IRGC.

Treasury has previously alleged Hormuz Safe is part of an IRGC-backed scheme forcing vessels to buy maritime insurance for passage, including coverage against seizures by Iran itself.

“Today’s designations of Iranian digital asset infrastructure make perfectly clear that efforts to finance the Iranian regime using cryptocurrencies are not beyond OFAC’s reach,” said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. 

The designation is the latest Treasury action aimed at isolating Iran from the international financial system, including through sanctions on digital asset exchanges. 

The OFAC designations include BitBank, its developer Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Company and three associates of Zanjani, with the Treasury calling them “key components of the Iranian regime’s digital assets-based sanctions evasion infrastructure.”

Cointelegraph reached out to BitBank for comment. 

Iran’s BitBank is a separate entity from bitbank, inc, a fully licensed crypto exchange founded in 2014 in Japan, which was acquired by SBI Holdings in June. Treasury’s designation lists BitBank as having been established in 2024. 

Related: Bitcoin tops $79K, oil falls as Trump says Iran war could end 

In August, the US sanctioned two digital asset exchanges, Shelbit and Aban Tether, accusing them of assisting the Iranian regime in sanctions evasion. Treasury also sanctioned four crypto exchanges, including the country’s largest, Nobitex, in June. 

In July, the US government ordered the freezing of more than $130 million in USDt held in wallets linked to Iran. 

Iran has reportedly sought to mitigate the impact of tightening financial restrictions. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that Iran’s central bank eased foreign currency controls to encourage businesses to bring overseas earnings home, including through cryptocurrency, amid tightening US sanctions. 

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