FinTech Law

The latest issue of The Financial Edge is out now → https://zurl.co/C1Pyx

This edition covers three regulatory developments every fintech company and investment adviser needs on their radar — and what your compliance program must do before the picture settles.

What's inside:

→ CFPB Workforce Cuts. The Justice Department just proposed cutting the Bureau's enforcement staff by 80% and supervision by 85%. The statutory authority doesn't shrink with the headcount. State AGs are already filling the vacuum. The supervision gap is real. The liability gap is not.

→ The SEC's Enforcement Reset. Chairman Atkins just repudiated his predecessor's program on the record — 7 crypto registration cases dismissed, off-channel communications penalties abandoned, novel legal theories explicitly rejected. But fraud, fiduciary duty, and individual accountability are fully in scope. Two-thirds of standalone actions charged individuals. The reset has sharp edges.

→ The SEC's New Crypto Taxonomy. Five categories. Four generally not securities. But the Howey test still applies — and the investment contract analysis now turns on the specificity of your representations.

→ Compliance deadlines through June 2026 — Form PF, Regulation S-P, EDGAR Next, and NTEU v. Vought litigation to watch.

→ Introducing .ai — attorney-reviewed legal documents for startups, built by FinTech Law and Rikka.

The Financial Edge: SEC Compliance for Fund Boards & Advisers, April 2026 CFPB workforce cuts and compliance implications, SEC FY2025 enforcement reset, crypto asset taxonomy, compliance deadlines through June 2026, and Enzio. Download the full PDF.

Two resources dropped this week that every founder building in crypto needs to read ➡️ https://zurl.co/oruGW

1️⃣ The latest issue of The Startup Solution is out. It covers the SEC-CFTC joint interpretive release and MOU — the most significant regulatory coordination in a generation — plus the House tokenization hearing, what AI-native law firms actually look like, and compliance deadlines through June 2026. ➡️ https://zurl.co/pPLyY

2️⃣ We published a new analysis on the CLARITY Act — and why Senator Lummis is right that this is the last realistic window for federal crypto legislation before 2030. ➡️ https://zurl.co/McxBx

The two pieces tell the same story from different angles.

The SEC-CFTC harmonization framework is the most clarity the industry has ever received from regulators. But it is interpretive guidance, not statute. It carries persuasive authority — not the binding force of law. The CLARITY Act is what converts regulatory interpretation into legal certainty. And if the Senate Banking Committee markup slips past late April, that statutory foundation may not exist for years.

→ The existing framework — Howey test, state money transmitter licensing, SEC enforcement — is fully operative regardless of what Congress does.

→ Fintech compliance programs must be built for the rules that exist, not the rules that are anticipated.

→ The window is open, but not indefinitely.

Fintech Resources | Fintech Newsletter, Blog & AI Tool Access quality FinTech resources such as the FinTech Law Blog, FinTech Law Newsletter, and FinTech Law AI Assistant Tool.

The SEC just rewrote the crypto rulebook.

After a decade of regulation-by-enforcement, the Commission's March 17 interpretive release establishes a five-part taxonomy for crypto assets — and for the first time, four of the five categories are explicitly not securities.

💲Digital commodities. Digital collectibles. Digital tools. Payment stablecoins. All outside the securities laws (with important caveats).

But here's what most commentary is missing: your token's classification is only as strong as the representations you made when you sold it. The investment contract analysis didn't disappear — it got sharper.

Three things every crypto founder should do this week:
1️⃣ Map your asset against the five categories and document why.

2️⃣ Audit every white paper, pitch deck, and Discord post for promises that could trigger Howey.
3️⃣ Define clear milestones that demonstrate when your project exits investment contract status.

The era of guessing is over. The era of proving your classification has begun.

➡️ New on the blog — we break down the five categories, the investment contract nuances most summaries are missing, and the five concrete steps to take now.
https://zurl.co/3P7pl

SEC Crypto Asset Taxonomy: 5 Categories Founders Must Know (2026) The SEC's March 2026 interpretive release creates a five-part crypto asset taxonomy. Learn which categories are securities, what founders must do now, and how the new framework affects your project.