CFTC & SEC Coordination; Anti-CBDC Provision in Housing Bill; CFTC Chair Remarks at FIA; Bitcoin Rights Bill; Trump EO on Cybercrime; FATF & Treasury Reports

CFTC and SEC Announce MOU to Strengthen Cross-Agency Coordination

On March 11, 2026, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that they entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen coordination between the agencies and promote regulatory clarity across U.S. financial markets, including for digital assets. The MOU aims to reduce duplicative requirements, align regulatory approaches, and support lawful innovation.

In conjunction with the MOU, the agencies launched a Joint Harmonization Initiative to coordinate policymaking, examinations, and enforcement in areas of shared regulatory interest. Priority areas include clarifying product definitions, reducing frictions for dually registered entities, trading venues, and intermediaries, and developing a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for crypto assets and other emerging technologies.

You can read the MOU here. 

Road to Housing Act’s Anti-CBDC Provision 

On March 2, 2026, the Senate released the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a federal housing legislation. On March 12, 2026, the bill passed the Senate 89-10. 

Notably, in this housing bill, Senate Republicans have included anti-central bank digital currency (CBDC) language, which prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing or developing a CBDC until December 31, 2030. If passed as part of the housing legislation, the provision would effectively place a statutory prohibition on federal CBDC development. Of note, the Anti-CBDC language comes from H.R. 1919, the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, introduced in the House by Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN), alongside 135 cosponsors, which passed the House in July 2025 and would impose a permanent ban on Federal Reserve Banks issuing a CBDC. 

Reportedly, additional negotiations between the House and Senate may be required for the housing bill to move forward, which could mean “weeks or more of delay.” On the House side, on March 6, 2026, Representative Michael Cloud (R-TX) penned a letter to House Leadership, calling for restoring the provisions in the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, i.e., striking the housing bill’s sunset provision on Anti-CBDC to make the ban permanent.

CFTC Chairman Delivers Remarks at FIA Conference

On March 9, 2026, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig delivered remarks at the Futures Industry Association (FIA) Global Cleared Markets Conference. In his speech, the Chairman outlined several potential initiatives, including developing a clear crypto asset taxonomy, CFTC intermediary registration requirements, and rules clarifying margined retail commodity transactions, among others.

Notably, the Chairman said he has directed staff to provide guidance on how the CFTC’s intermediary registration requirements apply to developers of non-custodial software systems, such as digital wallets and DeFi applications. He emphasized the need to resolve longstanding uncertainty over CFTC registration requirements for software developers and to ensure regulatory clarity for the full market stack for both developers and traditional market participants. 

Bitcoin Rights Bill Becomes Law in Indiana

On March 3, 2026, Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed House Bill 1042 into law, titled “Regulation and Investment of Cryptocurrency,” establishing new protections for digital asset users and integrating cryptocurrency into state-managed financial programs. The law will take effect July 1, 2026, and defines and recognizes digital assets in Indiana as a digital medium of exchange secured by cryptography and not issued by a central authority, and adds at least one cryptocurrency investment option into certain state-administered retirement and savings plans. 

Notably, the law includes provisions to protect “individual cryptocurrency activity.” Specifically, it prohibits state and local governmental units from excluding digital asset transactions for special taxation or discriminatory treatment, and prevents state and local agencies from prohibiting an individual’s ability to accept cryptocurrency as payment for lawful goods and services or to engage in mining or staking activities. Further, the legislation protects the right of individuals to self-custody digital assets, preventing most public agencies from restricting a person’s ability to hold cryptocurrency in a private wallet. 

The full text of the law is available here. 

President Trump Signs Executive Order To Combat Cybercrime

On March 6, 2026, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) entitled “Combating Cybercrime, Fraud, And Predatory Schemes Against American Citizens.” The EO aims to target transnational crime organizations (TCO) behind ransomware, financial fraud, and predatory scam operations, and it directs the Departments of State, Treasury, Justice, and Homeland Security to submit a 120 day action plan to identify and dismantle TCOs by leveraging resources available to the National Coordination Center (NCC). It also explicitly contemplates engaging the private sector in attribution and disruption efforts.

You can read the EO here. 

FATF Publishes Report on Stablecoins and Unhosted Wallets

On March 3, 2026, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body that sets global anti-money laundering (AML) standards, published a new “targeted report” highlighting illicit finance risks linked to stablecoins and peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions via unhosted wallets. The report notes that stablecoins have expanded rapidly, with a market capitalization exceeding $300 billion, and says that stablecoins accounted for 84% of illicit virtual asset transaction volume in 2025. The report also states that P2P transfers via unhosted wallets represent a “key vulnerability,” and recommends that governments and private-sector actors strengthen risk-mitigation measures.

The full FATF report is available here.

New Treasury Department Report Countering Illicit Finance in Digital Assets 

On March 6, 2026, the Treasury Department released a “Report to Congress on Innovative Technologies to Counter Illicit Finance involving Digital Assets,” as required under the GENIUS Act. The report has eight sections in total, covering topics such as the U.S. regulatory framework & innovation priorities, artificial intelligence, digital identity, blockchain monitoring and analytics, application programming interfaces, and more. 

Section 8 of the report focuses on DeFi (pp. 30–32), noting that both Treasury and industry recognize that certain tools can provide insight into transactions occurring within the DeFi ecosystem. It also acknowledges that the current Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) framework may not neatly apply to DeFi protocols, and that the technological capabilities of DeFi may enable the creation of new tools to help mitigate illicit finance (e.g., on-chain digital identity and credentialing frameworks). 

The report also puts forward several policy recommendations, which could be read as positive or negative, including: (1) specifying certain DeFi actors that should be subject to BSA/AML obligations; (2) adding requirements to address cross-border money laundering risks; and (3) considering the creation of digital asset-specific financial institution types or subtypes within the BSA framework. 

Last year, DEF submitted two comment letters to the Treasury Department on Innovative Methods to Detect Illicit Activity Involving Digital Assets. In these letters, DEF provides detailed analysis of illicit finance risks and vulnerabilities within the digital asset ecosystem, as well as the tools currently used to detect and mitigate such risks, including digital identity solutions and other innovative tools. We have submitted suggestions for updates to the 2019 FinCEN Guidance to include a broader range of noncustodial technologies and to provide further clarity to the industry. You can read the letters DEF submitted below: 

• DEF Treasury GENIUS Act Illicit Finance RFC Response (DEF, Paradigm, SPI) 
• DEF Treasury GENIUS ACT Illicit Finance RFC Response (DEF Only)

New DEF  Explainer: The Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development Act

On March 9, 2026, DEF published a one-page explainer on the bipartisan Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development (PIBDA). We provide an overview of what PIBDA does and why it matters for software developers. 

You can download and print the explainer here, and read a detailed analysis of PIBDA here. 

DeFi Dictionary 

This week’s DeFi Dictionary phrase of the week: Private Key. A private key is a randomly generated number used to sign transactions and prove ownership of digital assets. Whoever controls the private key controls the assets—which is why the golden rule of crypto remains: never share your private key.

Notable and Quotable

“I do believe that onchain software operates along a spectrum where certain products and services have an intermediary that’s involved actively or administering things, but there’s a wide range that sits in between that we shouldn’t be applying our traditional rules and regulations to. And then there’s the far end of the spectrum that we call decentralized finance. We can call it onchain without any sort of intermediation, but that stuff shouldn’t be regulated the same way, and we’ve got to clarify a clear line of safe harbor to make sure that that activity can happen here in America. […] Permissionless innovation is really important. Thomas Edison didn’t have to go ask for permission to innovate. And we’ve got to preserve that same framework for folks that just want to push the boundaries and test tech, new technologies, but they don’t want to be an intermediary and oversee an exchange or a brokerage or that sort of thing.”

— CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, on Bankless podcast

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