What changed
The United States produced the period's biggest moves, all on one day. On August 18 the SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, its first permanent crypto rule: a $5 million startup exemption over four years, a two-tier fundraising exemption up to $75 million per year on a new Form 1-CRYPTO, preemption of state registration for those offerings, and a safe harbor under which an asset stops being a security once its issuer's promised managerial work is done. Treasury proposed its GENIUS Act section 3 definitions the same day, fixing the licensing sequence: no unlicensed issuance in the US from January 18, 2027, and no unlicensed payment stablecoins offered to US persons at all from July 18, 2028.
The CLARITY Act reaches its first real test on Tuesday, September 15 at 2:15 pm: a cloture vote needing 60 senators, with at least two Republicans expected to oppose. The logjam moved over the final weekend. The White House accepted most of the Tillis-Gallego ethics package it had ignored since July, and a text its sponsors call final, released September 13, requires covered officials and their spouses to divest significant crypto interests or use blind trusts, with state attorneys general enforcing alongside the Justice Department, plus a Treasury circuit breaker on stablecoin rewards. Democrats caucused Sunday night without committing the roughly nine votes needed. The House leaves Washington September 17, so even a successful vote likely pushes a finished bill past the election.
Elsewhere, the quiet consolidation continued: the EU's post-grandfathering enforcement posture hardened, the UK's authorization gateway opens September 30, and Asia's licensing regimes moved from framework to practice, with Hong Kong's first licensed issuers operating and Singapore's framework carrying legal force since July 1.
What was corrected
Two entries were corrected during the period, both in the register's favor of precision over recall. Hong Kong's entry had carried the first stablecoin licenses as expected in early 2026; the HKMA in fact granted them on April 10, 2026, to Anchorpoint Financial and HSBC, and the entry now says so. Singapore's stablecoin framework had been graded as guidance pending legislative amendments; those Payment Services Act amendments took effect July 1, 2026, and the instrument is now marked in force. Corrections with citations are always welcome through the contact form.
What comes next
Four dates carry the next six weeks: the September 15 cloture vote, the UK FCA gateway opening September 30, and the twin comment deadlines on October 19 (Treasury's GENIUS definitions) and October 20 (Regulation Crypto Assets). Behind them sit January 18, 2027, when GENIUS licensing takes effect, and October 25, 2027, when the UK regime switches on. The full timeline is on the deadline calendar.
On the watchlist, not yet on the register
Four things we are tracking but have not written into entries because they are not yet verifiable against primary sources: whether Sunday's ethics deal actually delivers nine Democratic votes on Tuesday; the SEC's still-unissued innovation exemption for tokenized securities; South Korea's Digital Asset Basic Act, still contested between the Bank of Korea's bank-only stance and the FSC; and the CFTC's signaled market-structure rulemaking should CLARITY fail. When any of these becomes citable, it moves onto the register and the Tape.