Anchorage Digital Partners with Ethena on First GENIUS-Compliant Stablecoin

The lunacy meter is definitely maxing out these days when it comes to public crypto treasury vehicles. On the one hand, we’re seeing the first firms add NFTs to their balance sheets.

On the other hand, we have the team at the blockchain network Injective bringing SBET (the stock of Joe Lubin’s Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink) onchain, calling it “the first tokenized digital asset treasury.”

Let’s unpack that.

They put a token into a public company. Now they’re tokenizing the stock of that company and putting it back onchain, presumably to make 100x leveraged bets easier. Impressive.

Today, we’ll talk about:

• Ethena and Anchorage Digital partner for first GENIUS stablecoin
• Clarity Act hits Senate floor
• CoinShares receives MiCA license: Chat with CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti

HIGH SIGNAL NEWS

• Ethena gets a crypto treasury vehicle. A newly formed company named StablecoinX has announced a $360 million capital raise to purchase $ENA, with plans to list its Class A common shares on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “USDE.”💰️
• Nasdaq files to add staking to BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF. The amendment follows the SEC’s recent approval of its first-ever staking ETF, the REX-Osprey Solana Staking ETF, earlier this month.🪨
• BitGo confidentially files for IPO. The crypto custody platform reportedly holds over $100 billion in assets under custody.📃
• Another crypto company joins the S&P 500. As of Wednesday, Jack Dorsey's Bitcoin payments company Block is now included among the top 500 publicly traded companies in the U.S.🟧
• Polymarket re-enters U.S. market. Through a $112 million acquisition of the CFTC-regulated exchange and clearinghouse QCEX, the leading prediction market will soon offer its product to U.S. users. Additionally, the company is reportedly considering launching its own U.S. stablecoin.🇺🇸
• Aave DAO approves exclusive deal with Kraken. According to the proposal, Aave will grant exclusive licensing rights to Kraken’s Layer-2 network, Ink, to deploy a centralized version of its protocol. In return, Aave DAO will receive a share of the new platform’s revenue.🤝

STABLECOINS

Anchorage Digital Partners with Ethena on First GENIUS-Compliant Stablecoin — Interview with CEO Nathan McCauley

First GENIUS-compliant stablecoin: Anchorage Digital has partnered with Ethena Labs to reissue USDtb through its federally regulated trust bank. It is the first stablecoin to launch via Anchorage’s new issuance platform and positions USDtb as an early mover under the newly enacted GENIUS Act.

• Why it matters: Signed into law just last week, the GENIUS Act introduces a new federal framework for stablecoins in the United States. As the first and only digital asset firm to date with a national trust bank charter from the OCC, Anchorage Digital can enable GENIUS-compliant issuance at scale.

Interview: We spoke with Nathan McCauley, co-founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, about their new stablecoin platform, how it compares to players like Paxos and Agora, and why they’re building for large institutions over the long tail of issuers.

On choosing the hard route early:

• “Back in 2020, when we set out to secure a federal charter, my co-founder Diogo Monica and I believed crypto needed infrastructure that could meet the standards of traditional finance. It wasn’t easy — we had to build the compliance and operational stack from scratch — but it gave us a regulatory foundation built to scale with institutional demand.”

On how Anchorage Digital’s issuance platform compares to players like Paxos and Agora:

• “Unlike other white-label models, we’re not just offering a technology stack. We’re offering full GENIUS Act-compliant coverage under our federal charter, combined with bank-grade custody and capital treatment infrastructure. This is key for institutional partners with large-scale ambitions.”

On institutional momentum around stablecoins:

• “Inbound interest has skyrocketed. Banks, broker-dealers, and payment firms are all asking the same question: “How do we participate now that there’s a clear rulebook?” Even before GENIUS passed, the conversations were growing but now they’re more serious, and more urgent.”

On who they are building for:

• “We’re building for a world of a few dozen serious ones, each tied to real-world utility or distribution. Think Apple launching a dollar, or JPMorgan launching a tokenized euro. Some will come from banks, some from fintechs. But the common denominator will be regulatory legitimacy.”

Anchorage’s product roadmap:

• “We’re highly focused on three things: scaling our stablecoin issuance platform, expanding custody for tokenized assets, and integrating more deeply with traditional financial rails. Stablecoins are just the start. Tokenized treasuries, credit, and real-world assets are next, and we’re building the infrastructure to support them at a bank-grade level. In a few years, we won’t talk about “tokenized assets.” We’ll just call them assets.”

On what matters most in the Clarity Act debate:

• “Ultimately, knowing which assets are securities, which are commodities, and why that distinction matters is foundational for market transparency and integrating crypto into traditional finance. In terms of the bill’s future, we were very encouraged to see that its recent passage in the House was even more bipartisan than FIT 21. This is a key indicator that enacting market structure into law this year is a very real possibility.“

REGULATION

CLARITY Act Clears U.S. House, Hits Senate Floor

Crypto market structure bill: Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the CLARITY Act, a landmark crypto market structure bill specifically designed to address the regulation of the digital assets industry. The bill passed with a 294–134 majority, including 78 out of 212 Democratic votes.

• Why it matters: Alongside the recently passed GENIUS Act, CLARITY is the most anticipated piece of crypto legislation in the U.S. It offers long-awaited legal certainty by defining digital commodities and dividing oversight between the SEC and CFTC, laying the groundwork for compliant onshore innovation.

Dual-agency framework: At the heart of the bill is a framework that distinguishes between centralized and decentralized systems, and introduces a maturity-based model for when tokens move from SEC to CFTC oversight. Tokens that are closely tied to the use of a blockchain, so-called “digital commodities”, would be regulated by the CFTC. Meanwhile, tokens that look more like investments or are controlled by a central company would still fall under the SEC.

• “Put simply, this new framework is a big improvement on legacy regulatory frameworks, since securities laws are not designed for assets […] whose risk profile can transition from resembling that of a security to that of a commodity,” explained Miles Jennings, who leads policy at a16z crypto.

Investor protection: To protect consumers, CLARITY introduces mandatory public disclosures for digital asset issuers and imposes new restrictions on insider token sales, particularly before the underlying blockchain reaches maturity. In addition, it formally recognizes individuals’ right to self-custody of their assets.

DeFi carve-outs: CLARITY also makes decentralization a core factor in determining how projects are regulated. Entities that directly control user funds, like centralized exchanges, face stricter oversight. In contrast, decentralized actors who don’t hold or manage user assets — such as wallet providers, frontend developers, validators, or app teams — are eligible for tailored exemptions and lighter regulatory requirements.

• “DeFi developers do not take custody of user assets, nor do they control user assets. Therefore, we should not treat them in the same way we treat centralized actors,” Republican Congressman French Hill emphasized on the House floor before the vote.

Last-minute changes: Interestingly, these carve-outs were reintroduced and clarified just before the vote, after earlier changes and removals sparked backlash from DeFi builders.

Room for improvement: But even with these revisions, industry experts argue that the bill remains incomplete. For example, the DeFi carve-outs do not extend to all types of protocols (e.g., derivatives platforms), and state-level rules may still apply, potentially creating a fragmented regulatory landscape.

• Scope limitations: CLARITY also has a narrow focus: it addresses digital commodities only. Other asset types, such as tokenized securities, remain outside its scope for now.

What's next: The bill has now moved to the Senate, where the Banking and Agriculture Committees could choose to take it up, revise it through their own markup processes, and advance it to the full chamber for a vote.

• First pushback: Signs of divergence have already emerged. On Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee released a discussion draft of its own market infrastructure bill, the Responsible Financial Innovation (RFI) Act. It is very different from the House’s CLARITY Act, given it grants major responsibilities to the SEC, not the CFTC.

Ambitious timeline: Despite these differences, key congressional leaders have set a clear goal: send a final market structure bill to the President’s desk by the end of September.

Stéphane Blemus is a lawyer at White & Case LLP, specializing in Capital Markets and Digital Finance. Prior to that, he served for six years as Secretary General of Société Générale’s digital assets subsidiary, SG-Forge.

While the CLARITY Act aims to address many of the same challenges as the EU MiCA regulation, the two frameworks diverge significantly in their approach and mechanisms. MiCA establishes a uniform regulatory regime across EU Member States, while the CLARITY Act seeks to define jurisdictional boundaries between U.S. federal regulators, the SEC and CFTC, with decentralization posited as a sliding scale for determining regulatory oversight. This way, the CLARITY Act leaves more room for interpretation and regulatory flexibility, in contrast to MiCA’s fixed asset classes (EMTs, ARTs, utility tokens).

This approach, while offering potential advantages in terms of interpretive latitude and adaptability, may also introduce material uncertainty, depending on implementation and enforcement. But at this stage, it remains premature to make firm predictions due to current debates in the U.S. Congress.

Nevertheless, regulatory convergence, particularly between the U.S. and EU, should remain a paramount objective. A meaningful divergence between the CLARITY Act and MiCA risks creating cross-border regulatory friction, thereby complicating compliance for global firms and potentially impeding the very innovation these legislative efforts seek to foster.

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A conversation with Jean-Marie Mognetti, Co-Founder and CEO at CoinShares. On Wednesday, the leading investment company received its MiCA license, making it the first European asset manager to obtain such authorization.

Disclaimer: The information provided in the Crypto Briefing by Blockstories does not constitute investment advice. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any investment decisions made based on the content presented herein.