House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-AR) and House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson (R-PA) published an op-ed in CoinDesk outlining their vision for market structure legislation. The lawmakers highlight six core principles they believe must be included in digital asset legislation, focusing on promoting innovation, providing clarity for the classification of assets, codifying a framework for the issuance of new digital assets, establishing the regulation of spot market exchanges and intermediaries, establishing best practices for the protection of customer assets, and protecting innovative decentralized projects and activities and an individual's right to self-custody their digital assets.

Galaxy Digital UK received approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to execute derivatives trading. Leon Marshall, CEO of Galaxy Europe and Global Head of Sales, said in a press release that "Obtaining FCA authorization is a pivotal achievement for the Galaxy group, as it allows us to deliver innovative trading solutions to institutional clients while maintaining the highest regulatory standards."

Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) fined OKX for breaching the country’s anti-money laundering (AML) rules. According to an FIAU notice, OKX failed to adequately examine potential money laundering risks stemming from products it offered, while failing to carry out risk assessments during onboarding for roughly half of the client files the watchdog reviewed. The FIAU imposed a fine of €1.1 million on OKX's local subsidiary.

The Justice Department announced that crypto company CLS Global FZC LLC has been sentenced on criminal charges over running a fraudulent wash trading scheme and ordered to pay $428,000 to the US government, representing both a fine and seized crypto. The court also sentenced CLS Global to a term of probation for three years, during which the company is prohibited from participating in US crypto markets. CLS Global pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud and one count of wire fraud in January.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), lead sponsor of the GENIUS Act, told reporters he expects the bill to get a vote on the Senate floor in the coming weeks. The bill, which passed out of the Senate Banking Committee with bipartisan support, would create a regulatory framework for stablecoins. The House Financial Services Committee advanced a similar stablecoin bill on Wednesday that the GENIUS Act would ultimately need to be merged with.

House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) and Stephen Lynch (D-MA) wrote a letter to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner, voicing concern with reports that HUD is planning to implement blockchain and crypto within the agency’s operations. The lawmakers state that "Crypto markets are highly volatile, prone to fraud, and vulnerable to sudden collapses," arguing that "The federal government cannot allow under-regulated financial products to infiltrate critical housing programs."

Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote a letter to SEC Inspector General Deborah Jeffrey, calling for an investigation into whether Trump Administration officials may have improperly influenced SEC enforcement and regulatory decisions on crypto. Warren noted that the SEC has dropped almost all of its ongoing lawsuits against crypto companies, while taking steps to proactively alert crypto companies that they will not be expected to comply with the agency's rules. She expressed concern that "President Trump, his closest advisors, and his family members all stand to benefit from boosts in the crypto industry."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) introduced the Combatting Money Laundering in Cyber Crime Act (S. 1273) to enhance the Secret Service’s investigative authority over criminal digital asset transactions. The bill would make updates to US law to ensure the Secret Service has full authority to investigate evolving forms of illicit finance, including countering cartels, defeating scam camps, addressing Chinese money laundering organizations, and combatting North Korean theft of digital assets.

The Senate Banking Committee voted 13-11 along party lines to advance the nomination of Paul Atkins to serve as SEC chair. Atkins has indicated that he would take a lighter-touch regulatory approach to crypto markets, enforcement, and rules around how companies raise money in the US. The Committee also voted along party lines to approve Jonathan Gould’s nomination to serve as comptroller of the currency, while Treasury assistant secretary for financial institutions nominee Luke Pettit received bipartisan support.