In a matter of days Washington has done two opposite and complementary things: it scrapped rules that had never entered into force and proposed new ones. Read together, the move says a great deal about where American regulation of digital assets is heading.

The Treasury withdraws the rules on wallets and mixers

FinCEN, the Treasury’s anti-money-laundering agency, filed two withdrawal notices on 5 October. The first concerns the December 2020 proposal on so-called “unhosted wallets”: it would have required banks and money services businesses to keep records of transfers from self-custodial wallets above 3,000 dollars and to report those above 10,000, including counterparty information. The second cancels the 2023 proposal that designated international crypto mixing as a class of transactions of “primary money laundering concern” under the Patriot Act. The withdrawal cites the White House report of July 2025 and the idea that legitimate users should be able to transact privately on a public blockchain. A caveat: existing obligations do not disappear, from suspicious activity reports to sanctions screening.

The CFTC tries to fill the CLARITY Act’s void

On 5 October the CFTC published the advance notice of proposed rulemaking for two sets of rules, Regulation CTX (Crypto Asset Transactions) and Regulation CAM (Crypto Asset Markets). The first covers retail trading on margin, leverage or financing — “Rung 2” — while the second creates a subcategory of Designated Contract Market designed only for those products. Chairman Michael Selig explained that, unlike the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate, these rules do not force assets onto registered platforms: the CFTC would have no authority to impose that without a statute. Spot trading remains outside the perimeter. Public comment will run for 60 days.

The SEC opens custody, cautiously

On the SEC side, on 1 October the Commission proposed a dedicated framework for the custody of crypto assets by registered advisers and regulated funds, allowing self-custody and state trust companies as custodians “in certain circumstances”. Chairman Paul Atkins spoke of a compliant path “where none previously existed”. Commissioner Peirce clarified that self-custody concerns advisers acting as custodians for clients, not investors holding their own coins directly. Here too, 60 days of comment. In parallel, the Treasury has made the GENIUS Act’s interim rule operational, setting at 10 billion dollars the threshold below which a stablecoin issuer may opt for state supervision.

The market stays on hold

The price has not yet reacted with enthusiasm. Bitcoin remains stuck below 87,000 dollars: rejected twice in a few days, it holds around 85,800-86,000. Flows underpin the picture: US spot ETFs took in 241.1 million dollars last week, a third consecutive week of positive net inflows, though sharply slowing from the previous 2.4 billion.

The feeling is that regulation is running faster than the market. Six months ago the problem was the legislative void; today it is beginning to be the sheer number of rules out for consultation at the same time, across the Treasury, CFTC, SEC and Fed. For those building, the question is no longer “whether” crypto will be regulated, but “by whom” and “with what room to manoeuvre”.

Verified sources: FinCEN/Treasury via crypto.news and Bitcoin.com News (5 October 2026); CFTC — Michael Selig’s speech at the Fordham Law Blockchain Regulatory Symposium and WSJ op-ed (5 October 2026); Cryptopolitan and Yahoo Finance on the CTX/CAM proposal (5 October 2026); SEC — press release 2026-100 and Paul Atkins’ statement (1-2 October 2026); CNBC and Cryptopolitan on crypto custody (2 October 2026); Federal Register 2026-19966 and ABA Banking Journal on the GENIUS Act interim rule (30 September 2026); CoinDesk and Cointelegraph on the BTC price (5 October 2026); Bitcoin Magazine, SoSoValue and CryptoNews on ETF inflows (5 October 2026); Circle — response to the MiCA consultation and Bitcoin Foundation (1 October 2026).