The Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to vote today on the nomination of Brian Quintenz to serve as CFTC Chair. Quintenz is a former CFTC commissioner, and he was tapped by President Trump to serve as chair earlier this year. The Committee is also planning to consider the nominations of Dudley Hoskins to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Scott Hutchins to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics, and Michael Boren to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment.

President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on Friday, following House passage of the stablecoin bill on Thursday. President Trump asserted that stablecoins "could be perhaps the greatest revolution in financial technology since the birth of the Internet itself," adding that he is "committed to signing landmark crypto market structure legislation this year." The House passed a market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, last week, though the measure needs to go to the Senate, which also has its own proposal.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published Q&As related to staking on own account and pre-funding clients’ orders with clients’ crypto assets under MiCA. The Q&As assert that MiCA does not allow the staking of clients' crypto assets by CASPs for their own account, even in cases where the client has explicitly provided consent. Additionally, the pre-funding of client transactions using client’s crypto-assets is only permissible under MiCA where the third-party holding the client’s crypto assets is authorized to provide the crypto asset service of custody and administration of crypto assets on behalf of clients in accordance with MiCA.

President Trump is reportedly planning to sign an executive order to open the US retirement market to crypto investments, gold, and private equity. According to the Financial Times, the executive order would instruct regulatory agencies to investigate remaining hurdles needed to allow for alternative investments to be included in 401(k)s. Such investments would include digital assets, metals, funds focused on corporate takeovers, private loans, and infrastructure deals.

The Justice Department announced that former rugby player Shane Donovan Moore was sentenced to 30 months in prison for wire fraud after he defrauded investors with promises of building a new crypto mining operation. According to an agency press release, Moore solicited more than $900,000 from around 40 investors, claiming he was purchasing and operating crypto mining equipment. However, his company never invested in such equipment and operated as a Ponzi scheme, with the investments from later investors being used for pay off earlier investors.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in an interview with Fox Business that he is open to merging the SEC and CFTC and has supported the idea for years, but noted that it is “not the primary job that we have before us.” Atkins asserted that the idea "makes a lot of sense - especially with the potentially overlapping jurisdictions" between the two agencies.

Following House passage of the GENIUS Act, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said at a press event that the agency is considering an innovation exemption from regulations in order to incentivize tokenization. He explained that SEC staff "is considering what other changes may be appropriate to incentivize tokenization within our regulatory framework, including an innovation exception that would permit novel ways of trading and more narrowly tailored forms of relief to facilitate the building of other components of a tokenized securities ecosystem." He also released a statement praising the vote as a "historic milestone for crypto entrepreneurs, financial market participants, and everyday Americans."

The House passed the GENIUS Act, CLARITY Act, and Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. The GENIUS Act passed in a bipartisan vote of 308-122, with 102 Democrats supporting the bill. President Trump is planning to sign the stablecoin bill into law today. The CLARITY Act advanced in a bipartisan vote of 294-134, and the market structure measure now heads to the Senate. The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act advanced with a slimmer margin of 219-210, with only two Democrats, Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Shri Thanedar (D-MI), in support.

UK Minister for Intergovernmental Relations Pat McFadden told lawmakers there is a case to be made for banning political donations made in crypto, given how hard it can be to trace their source. McFadden addressed the topic after being asked by Labour Party member Liam Byrne about banning crypto fundraising.