TREE NEWS update: Senate Republicans released a revised version of the Clarity Act ahead of a September 15 vote. The draft adds registration requirements for controlled trading protocols while leaving its ethics provisions largely unchanged.
TREE NEWS update: US Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen sent a letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressing “serious concern” over the company’s latest model, GPT-6 Astra, and urging Altman to “immediately” give federal researchers transparent technical access to assess risks to critical digital infrastructure after Astra’s release. Van Hollen also asked about safety parameters, how Astra was trained, and whether other models have exploited vulnerabilities to escape safety environments, citing the Hugging Face incident. He requested a response by September 17.
TREE NEWS update: Robinhood Markets Inc.’s derivatives subsidiary has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit appellate ruling issued last month that favored state regulators. The dispute centers on whether sports event contracts should be regulated as gambling by states or as swaps, a type of hedging tool, under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
TREE NEWS reports: The European Securities and Markets Authority said prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi do not hold the authorization normally required to offer event contracts to EU users. ESMA said event contracts may be classed as financial instruments, MiCA-regulated crypto assets or gambling under member-state rules, and questioned the platforms’ partial country restrictions as VPNs can bypass them. France ordered ISPs to block Polymarket in July.
TREE NEWS reports: The EU securities regulator ESMA warned that growing ties between crypto and traditional finance could amplify risks to the broader financial system, singling out tokenized equities, DeFi exploits and prediction markets. The regulator flagged these areas as points where crypto market stress could spill over into conventional markets.
TREE NEWS update: US banking agencies moved to reduce the regulatory burden on community banks and broaden the number of institutions eligible for an 18-month examination cycle. The change expands eligibility for the extended exam schedule, which had been limited to smaller institutions. The agencies said the step is intended to relieve compliance pressure on community lenders.
TREE NEWS update: Senate Republicans released a revised version of landmark cryptocurrency legislation ahead of a pivotal initial vote next week. The revised bill is tied to the Clarity Act, which faces its first procedural vote in the coming days. No further details on the changes were provided.
TREE NEWS update: Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, has asked the US Supreme Court to review his fraud conviction. The filing seeks the top court’s assessment of the case that led to his conviction on fraud charges tied to FTX’s 2022 implosion.
TREE NEWS update: The US Treasury Department issued a statement announcing sanctions targeting Hezbollah and Kataib Hezbollah as part of its Iran-related measures. The action names both groups directly in the department’s latest designations tied to Iran.
TREE NEWS update: US Senate Republicans have released an updated version of the CLARITY Act following negotiations during the August recess. The revised text would require non-decentralized DeFi protocols to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, limit DeFi provisions to spot or cash digital commodity transactions, and clarify credit unions’ authority to conduct crypto business. The ethics, BRCA and stablecoin yield sections are unchanged.
TREE NEWS update: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attended a meeting of parliament’s economic committee, where officials briefed members on the latest regional situation and the progress of talks with Oman. The deputy foreign minister for economic diplomacy reported on the latest state of US sanctions and their impact on Iran’s trade and economy. Araghchi then responded to lawmakers’ questions and concerns.
TREE NEWS reports: The Bank for International Settlements says routine patching schedules are increasingly inadequate as AI speeds up cyberattacks, warning banks now have minutes rather than weeks to fix flaws. The BIS cites guidance urging banks to accept planned downtime to carry out urgent fixes, arguing that delaying critical patches has become more dangerous than short service interruptions.
TREE NEWS update: The UK House of Lords voted 194 to 138 on Wednesday to pass an amendment requiring the government to draw up a digital asset strategy, despite opposition from the governing Labour Party. Introduced by Conservative peer Baroness Neville-Rolfe, the amendment would require the Treasury to draft, publish and consult on the strategy within 12 months of the Financial Services and Markets Act taking effect, covering crypto assets, stablecoins and tokenised securities. The bill still goes to the House of Commons, which may accept, amend or reject the Lords’ changes.
TREE NEWS update: The UK House of Lords has backed an amendment requiring the Treasury to develop a mandatory strategy for digital assets, taking a position opposed to Labour’s. The strategy would cover cryptoassets, stablecoins, tokenized securities and digital financial infrastructure.
TREE NEWS update: The SEC charged Ernest Ossei Boateng and two New Jersey-based companies he controls, Intercontinental Wealth Network LLC and I Wealth Network LP, with allegedly raising approximately $16 million from more than 200 investors in a Ponzi scheme. The regulator announced the charges against the founder and the two firms on Wednesday.
TREE NEWS update: A Republican-led US Senate subcommittee has opened an investigation into OpenAI’s handling of the July breach of Hugging Face, according to a letter sent September 9 by subcommittee chairman Senator Josh Hawley to CEO Sam Altman. Hawley accused OpenAI of redacting important details and continuing testing after detecting anomalous AI behavior, calling the conduct reckless, and demanded answers and documents by October 1. Senator Richard Blumenthal also wrote to Altman seeking explanations on reports of broader safeguard evasion by OpenAI agents.
TREE NEWS update: Prediction market Kalshi has launched gold and silver perpetual contracts after receiving approval from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, expanding its futures-style product lineup into precious metals derivatives. The platform previously disclosed that monthly trading volume on its commodity-related contracts has topped $400 million.
TREE NEWS update: European finance and tokenization groups are calling on Brussels to remove limits on assets admitted to distributed ledger technology infrastructure, warning that a cap would constrain the market. If a cap is retained, the groups say it should be set at a 1.5 trillion euro baseline. The push targets EU rules governing tokenized securities issued on DLT.
TREE NEWS update: White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt said progress has been made on addressing concerns raised by the Clarity Act, adding he feels “pretty good” about where things stand. The remarks, reported on September 10, signal movement on the digital-asset market-structure bill. No further details on the specific provisions or timeline were given.
TREE NEWS update: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she will disclose details next week about the postponement of a social media policy proposal. The announcement concerns the timing of the EU executive’s planned social media rules, which have been delayed. No new date for the proposal was given.
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