The Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing next Tuesday, June 10, on Brian Quintenz’s nomination to serve as CFTC chair. The hearing comes as the CFTC is facing a mass exodus of top officials, as all four of its commissioners have left or announced plans to leave. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-AR) said in an interview with Politico that he aims to "get [Quintenz] out of committee as quickly as possible."

The Senate Appropriations Committee Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee held a hearing to receive testimony from SEC Chair Paul Atkins on the agency’s FY 2026 budget request. Chair Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) asked about the agency’s plans to regulate digital assets, while Chair Atkins indicated that the SEC is working toward proposing regulations for the industry and that a key aspect of the Crypto Task Force’s work could be complete within a matter of months.

House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) sent a letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins, requesting a full technical and impact analysis of the CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633), which would reshape how digital assets are regulated in the US. Waters argued that "the apolitical technical feedback that agencies provide to Congress is a critical and necessary resource for informed legislating." The letter comes as House Democratic staffers have raised concerns that the SEC has denied them information about the potential impact of the bill, while providing this analysis to Republicans.

The Justice Department filed a brief urging the Supreme Court not to take up the case of a BTC investor who claimed the IRS violated his privacy when it seized his records from crypto exchange Coinbase, saying the case is a poor vehicle for addressing concerns about digital-era transactions. Investor James Harper first filed suit in 2020, challenging the IRS's seizure of his Coinbase account records through a John Doe summons that was part of the agency's enforcement efforts. He asked the court to force the IRS to delete his records.

The CFTC announced that Paul Hayeck will serve as Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement. Hayeck has served at the CFTC for 25 years and has been a deputy director in the Enforcement Division since 2013. Prior to joining the agency, Hayeck was a partner at a law firm where he focused on commercial litigation. He also previously worked as litigation counsel for the FDIC.

The SEC sent a letter to ETF Opportunities Trust, a legal entity that issues various exchange-traded funds (ETFs), saying proposed ETH and SOL ETFs from REX Financial and Osprey Funds may fail to meet the legal definition of an investment company. The agency also notes that the funds may have improperly filed their registration statement. The letter raises concerns over the products' registration and potential eligibility for exchange listing. The SEC is asking for a response to the letter and for concerns to be resolved before moving forward.

SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw issued a statement criticizing the Crypto Task Force’s efforts and arguing that recent staff guidance on digital assets has only added to confusion around what is and is not a security. Crenshaw argued that "Rather than clarity, it seems we are simply getting out of the way of anything and everything in the crypto space. In so doing, we are thwarting any meaningful attempt to apply a coherent regime to crypto assets and rewarding a maximally aggressive approach to entering our markets."

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against Funnull Technology Inc., a Philippines-based company that provides computer infrastructure for websites involved in virtual currency investment scams that defrauded Americans out of more than $200 million. According to a press release, Funnull enables virtual currency investment scams, or pig butchering scams, by purchasing IP addresses in bulk from major cloud services companies and selling them to cybercriminals to host scam platforms and other malicious web content.

The SEC moved to drop its lawsuit accusing Binance of mishandling customer funds and deceiving regulators, citing the agency’s ongoing effort to change the way it regulates the digital asset industry. The SEC and Binance co-founder Chanpeng Zhao filed a joint motion to stay the case in the US District Court for the DC Circuit. The move follows a joint request in February to pause the lawsuit for 60 days. The filing calls for dismissing the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled, and without cost or fees to any party. The agency sued Binance in June 2023.