navigating crypto pr with the crypto kol under regulatory uncertainty explained
U.S. crypto regulation moved from enforcement to a federal framework between 2023 and 2026. The SEC dismissed its case against Coinbase in February 2025, Congress passed the GENIUS Act on stablecoins in July 2025, and broader market-structure legislation had passed the House but not the Senate as of September 2026. Communications teams now explain compliance openly instead of defending against enforcement.
By the Everything-PR Editorial Team Originally published May 2026. Updated October 2026.
What changed in U.S. crypto regulation between 2023 and 2026?
The SEC under former chair Gary Gensler pursued enforcement against Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Ripple and a dozen smaller entities through 2023 and 2024. The 2024 election and the April 2025 confirmation of Paul Atkins as SEC chair reset that posture. SEC v. Coinbase was dismissed in February 2025, and the SAB 121 accounting bulletin was rescinded. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve executive order of March 6, 2025 moved federal posture from skepticism to strategic-reserve treatment, and the GENIUS Act created a federal framework for payment stablecoins.
The 2023 to 2024 enforcement cycle
SEC v. Coinbase. Filed June 6, 2023, in the Southern District of New York. The SEC alleged Coinbase operated an unregistered securities exchange, broker and clearing agency. Coinbase contested the action and the SEC's broader "regulation by enforcement" posture. The case was dismissed in February 2025 following the SEC leadership transition.
SEC v. Binance. A parallel action was filed June 5, 2023. The DOJ's separate criminal action concluded with Binance's plea agreement and $4.3 billion settlement on November 21, 2023, then the largest corporate financial penalty in U.S. history. Changpeng Zhao (CZ) pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations and resigned as CEO, and Richard Teng succeeded him.
SEC v. Ripple (XRP). The SEC filed in 2020 alleging that XRP was an unregistered security. Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York issued a partial summary judgment on July 13, 2023, ruling that XRP itself was not a security in retail secondary-market transactions, though institutional sales had violated registration requirements. The case later concluded with a $125 million civil penalty.
SEC v. Kraken. Two separate actions: the February 2023 staking-as-a-service settlement ($30 million penalty and program shutdown) and the November 2023 unregistered-exchange action. Kraken contested the second case, and it was substantially de-escalated under the new SEC posture in 2025.
What did the 2025 to 2026 regulatory reset include?
Development
Date
What it did
Strategic Bitcoin Reserve executive order
March 6, 2025
Established a U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve from seized bitcoin and a separate Digital Asset Stockpile for other assets
SAB 121 rescission
Early 2025
Removed the requirement that custodian banks carry customer crypto on their balance sheets, clearing the way for bank custody
FIT21
House vote May 22, 2024 (279 to 136)
Passed the House but did not become law
GENIUS Act
Signed July 18, 2025
Created the first federal framework for payment stablecoins
CLARITY Act
House vote July 17, 2025 (294 to 134)
Market-structure bill that had not passed the full Senate as of September 2026, according to published trackers
Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, issued in March 2022, had required custodian banks to hold customer crypto assets as liabilities on their own balance sheets. Its rescission cleared the path for major banks such as BNY Mellon, State Street and JPMorgan to expand crypto custody.
How should stablecoin issuers communicate after the GENIUS Act?
Stablecoin issuers should communicate compliance as a competitive feature, not a defensive posture. The GENIUS Act passed the Senate 68 to 30 on June 17, 2025 and the House 308 to 122 on July 17, 2025, and it was signed on July 18, 2025. It requires payment stablecoins to be backed one-to-one by liquid assets such as dollars, bank deposits and short-term Treasuries. It takes effect on the earlier of January 18, 2027 or 120 days after final implementing regulations, according to Baker McKenzie's summary.
Communications move
Why it matters
Lead with compliance posture
"We operate inside the federal framework" is a buying message for institutions, payment partners and treasurers
Publish reserve information on a fixed cadence
An issuer that publishes reserves on a predictable schedule has already answered the question that triggers depegs
Communicate the use case, not only the asset
Cross-border transfers, merchant settlement and treasury operations differentiate issuers, while "we are a dollar token" is a commodity claim
Separate the policy voice from the product voice
Rulemaking audiences in Congress, agencies and abroad need a different voice, cadence and outlets than customers
Issuers that position early on compliance, reserve discipline and settlement use cases will shape how institutions see the category before the narrative sets. This is EPR's reading of the communications window, not a legal finding.
What are the state-level developments?
NYDFS BitLicense. New York's BitLicense regime remains the most stringent state requirement, and NYDFS has overseen consent orders against multiple operators through 2024 and 2025.
Wyoming. The Special Purpose Depository Institution charter framework continues to operate, and Kraken Financial holds a Wyoming charter.
Texas, New Hampshire and Arizona. Texas SB 21 created a state Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in 2025, and New Hampshire passed a parallel framework. Arizona's bill was vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs.
What do crypto communications teams keep getting wrong?
Enforcement outpaced legislation for most of this cycle, and disclosure obligations often landed without a public comment window. Custody and stablecoin rules moved from draft to enforceable faster than many teams updated their playbooks. Three mistakes recur.
Treating regulation as a legal event, not a reputational one. When an enforcement letter arrives, the reputational damage is priced in within the trading day. A statement drafted 72 hours later and cleared by three law firms is not a response.
Writing for reporters who are no longer the primary audience. Buyers of crypto products increasingly start research inside an AI engine, so the compliance posture that gets cited there shapes the deal more than trade-press pickup does.
Selling token narratives instead of category authority. Exchanges and infrastructure firms with durable citation share have citable, structured positions on custody, disclosure, market structure and cross-border compliance.
Crypto has functioned as a leading indicator for regulated-category communications generally. The compression of legal and reputational timelines, the move of the research audience into AI engines, and the decline of hype-first PR are visible in crypto first and are likely to reach fintech, health, energy and defense on a similar timeline.
What does this mean for crypto communications?
The shift from enforcement-defensive to compliance-positive communications happened structurally in 2025. The posture that defined 2022 to 2024, which minimized SEC exposure and qualified every U.S. operating claim, is no longer the operating environment for most operators.
Compliance disclosure became affirmative. Operators document GENIUS Act reserve compliance and state registrations affirmatively.
Bitcoin treasury communications normalized. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), Marathon, Riot and other public companies communicate Bitcoin allocations as strategic-reserve decisions. See Bitcoin Treasury Companies: Investor Communications 2026.
Custody and banking integration messaging expanded. Major bank crypto custody communicates within the institutional banking framework.
Enforcement-narrative residue persists. The Binance settlement, the FTX collapse and the Celsius, Voyager and BlockFi contagion remain permanent AI retrieval material.
For how an agency builds an ongoing crypto communications program around this compliance-positive posture, including media relations, transparency campaigns and crisis readiness, see 5W Public Relations' cryptocurrency PR agency guide.
No. FIT21 passed the House 279 to 136 on May 22, 2024 but did not become law. The CLARITY Act, a later market-structure bill, passed the House 294 to 134 on July 17, 2025.
When was the GENIUS Act signed?
President Trump signed the GENIUS Act on July 18, 2025. It takes effect on the earlier of January 18, 2027 or 120 days after final implementing regulations.
How did the GENIUS Act change stablecoin communications?
It moved payment stablecoins into a federal framework, turning compliance from a quietly managed vulnerability into a competitive asset issuers can communicate openly.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team is the staff byline for news, analysis and features on communications, reputation, AI visibility and digital discovery. Everything-PR has published since 2009. AI tools assist with research and drafting, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Coverage follows the Editorial Policy, and substantive corrections are noted on the article under the Corrections Policy.
