Crypto Regulation 2026: Agencies Advance as CLARITY Act Stalls

The promise and what was actually delivered

In January, the law firm K&L Gates gave 2026 a theme: the "democratization of digital assets." By that it meant letting Americans hold and trade crypto without the constant threat of an enforcement action, with the SEC and CFTC expected to issue more guidance through the year.21 The firm also expected Treasury, the OCC and other agencies to write rules putting the GENIUS stablecoin law into effect, mostly in the first half of the year. It expected the CLARITY Act, the market-structure bill, to move forward in the Senate.2122

Ten months later, that forecast has split in two. Regulators did most of what was expected, and in some areas they went further. Congress did not. On September 15, a Senate procedural vote on the CLARITY Act failed 49 to 50, well short of the 60 votes needed. As of late October the bill is still not law.3133

My view: 2026 has opened US crypto markets, but almost entirely through decisions by regulatory agencies. Those decisions can be challenged in court and reversed by future officials. The two sectors that best show this are crypto custody banks and bitcoin treasury companies.

How Congress stalled

The bill's record looked strong until September. The House passed it 294 to 134 in July 2025, and the Senate Banking Committee approved a rewritten version 15 to 9 in May 2026.3132 Senate Republicans released a combined 616-page text in July. A final revision came out on September 14, the day before the vote.38 Republican Senators Collins, Hawley, Moran and Tillis voted no, along with every Democrat.3839

The coverage mostly agrees on what sank it, though outlets weigh the causes differently. Several say the main problem was ethics language covering government officials' crypto holdings, not the basic plan to split oversight between the SEC and CFTC.3738 DLA Piper explains the ethics objection: opponents said the bill covered officials launching new tokens but left out income from existing ventures, licensing deals and ongoing memecoin businesses.33 Democrats such as Senator Ruben Gallego said Republicans rejected tighter limits on President Trump's crypto interests. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto raised concerns about enforcement powers and prediction markets.39

A second dispute is stablecoin yield. Banks pushed to ban "rewards" on stablecoins, which they see as a way around the GENIUS Act's ban on paying interest.2124 The Senate text would have banned passive interest paid simply for holding a stablecoin, while allowing rewards tied to transactions, loyalty, payments or liquidity.31 Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong withdrew support for Senate drafts twice, in January and again in March.38 Community bank objections to the rewards rules were still unresolved at the final vote.38

This matters because the parts that were never in serious dispute will have to wait too. Coverage describes strong agreement in both chambers on giving the CFTC exclusive authority over spot markets for digital commodities, treating bitcoin and ether as commodities, and requiring firms to keep customer assets separate.38 The fight was over the political edges of the bill, but its core went down with it. Senator Lummis has warned that the next realistic chance could be years away, and DLA Piper says this year's failed vote nearly rules out a market-structure law in 2026.3733

Regulators moved ahead anyway

Without a statute, regulators kept going. The SEC loosened its custody stance late in 2025, letting investment advisers and funds use qualified state trust companies and setting conditions for broker-dealers to hold crypto securities directly.21 The CFTC approved spot crypto trading on a registered exchange. It also allowed futures brokers to accept stablecoins, bitcoin and ether as margin collateral in a limited first phase.2122 Coverage says CFTC Chairman Selig has promised a market structure "with or without" legislation.37

One publication summed up the pattern this way: the SEC is building rules for tokenized stocks before Congress passes a full bill, and the OCC is chartering digital-asset banks before GENIUS rules spell out what those banks must follow.13 That is a fair description of the year. It also shows the weakness: the more of the system rests on agency interpretation, the more of it a court can undo.

Custody banks are where the money is going

The most practical part of 2026's opening is the rush for national trust bank charters from the OCC. These charters let a company custody assets under one federal regulator nationwide. They do not allow taking deposits or making loans as a main business.18 BitGo, Circle, Ripple, Paxos and Fidelity Digital Assets won conditional approval in December 2025. Bridge and Crypto.com followed in February.14 Coinbase received conditional approval in April for Coinbase National Trust Company. It plans to move its institutional custody business there from its New York-chartered trust company over three years.1912 Forbes reports Coinbase holds about $376 billion in assets and more than 80% of US bitcoin and ether ETF assets.19 Block applied in September for "Builders Bank and Trust" to custody bitcoin and stablecoins.17

Counts of how many charters have been granted differ because they measure different things. One September tally found at least 12 conditional approvals in 2026 alone, including Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, Revolut and World Liberty Trust Company.13 The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) says the OCC has approved or conditionally approved 21 national trust banks under the Trump administration, at least 13 of them crypto companies.1520 Conditional approval is also not the same as operating. As of March, Anchorage Digital Bank was the only one to have reached full national trust bank status.18

The legal basis is a rule the OCC finalized in March. It replaced "fiduciary activities" with "operations of a trust company and activities related thereto" in the chartering regulation, and took effect April 1.1815 That change is now being challenged. On October 2, ICBA sued in federal court in Washington, DC, asking the court to throw out the rule, a 2021 interpretive letter, and Protego Holdings' conditional charter.1116 ICBA argues the OCC has created a fourth kind of bank that neither takes deposits nor acts as a fiduciary. It says these banks avoid FDIC insurance, Community Reinvestment Act duties and Federal Reserve oversight of their parent companies.1520 The OCC answers that Congress chose the words "trust company" on purpose and that its reading reflects past practice.15

The consumer-protection argument should get attention whoever wins. A firm with "national bank" in its name may look federally insured when it is not.15 It also raises a question about what "democratization" really means if ordinary customers misunderstand what protects their assets.

Bitcoin treasury companies under pressure

If custody banks show the opening working, bitcoin treasury companies show its risks. These are public companies whose main business is holding bitcoin. CoinShares counted more than one million BTC held by corporate treasuries across 190 public companies late last year.28 By June 2026, one tracker counted 199 companies holding 1.264 million BTC.2

The model works when the stock trades above the value of the bitcoin the company holds. That premium is measured as mNAV, the company's market value divided by the value of its bitcoin. Above 1.0, selling new shares to buy bitcoin increases bitcoin per share. Below 1.0, it decreases it.2 Strategy's mNAV reached 3.89x in November 2024 and then fell below 1 in 2026.3 An on-chain analyst flagged a reading of 0.99 in late June. He calculated that Strategy's cash covered less than ten months of preferred dividends unless it sold bitcoin.10

Strategy then did what it had long said it would not. It sold 6,948 BTC between May and August for about $432.5 million, and changed its promise from "never sell" to "never be a net seller."39 MARA sold about 15,000 BTC in March to buy back convertible notes, and Riot sold too.23 Strategy started buying again in late August. As of its October 19 filing it held 848,517 BTC at an average cost of $75,446.83

Whether Strategy's stock now trades at a premium depends on how it is measured. Decrypt reported a basic mNAV of 0.87 in October, while the company's own redefined measure showed 1.12x the same day.3 An independent tracker put it at 1.19x on October 30.1 Strategy changed its headline metrics in July, as its funding moved from convertible debt to preferred stock.3 Investors should note that the company rewrote the scorecard just after the original numbers turned negative.

In Strategy's third-quarter call, Michael Saylor claimed treasury companies have bought 1.6 bitcoin for every one mined this year, creating a "supply shock."5 Other figures complicate that picture. Strategy's weekly bitcoin purchases have slowed to $20–30 million, while buybacks of its STRC preferred shares have run near $200 million a week.3 The shares fell more than 8% on the day of the call.5

What 2027 holds

The custody charters, CFTC spot trading and SEC custody relief together give US investors more regulated ways into crypto than at any earlier point.2114 Most of it, though, rests on agency interpretation rather than legislation. The ICBA lawsuit is the first direct court challenge to that approach.15 The stalled CLARITY Act means there is still no law to back it up.33 Bitcoin treasury companies show how much depends on stock-market sentiment. When their premium disappeared, Strategy turned to selling bitcoin and buying back its own securities, and changed how it measures itself.3

The opening of the US crypto market is real. Its legal footing is weaker than this year's charter approvals suggest, and the next year will show how well it holds up.