After a year of policy changes under the Trump administration, 2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal time for U.S. rules on digital assets.
Key developments include Senate action on market structure legislation, the rollout of a new stablecoin law, leadership changes at the CFTC, and state-level experiments led by Arizona and Texas, according to Cointelegraph and CryptoNews.
What happens next will influence how tokens are traded, how stablecoins are issued, who oversees the market, and how states tax or support blockchain activity.
Here’s what to look for and why it’s important.
Market structure bill advances in Senate
As of late December, the Senate had not voted on a bill on the structure of the digital asset market.
The House passed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in July and senators indicated they would build on that legislation rather than pass it as is, Cointelegraph reported.
Committee leaders released two drafts for discussion in 2025. The Senate Banking Committee proposed a Republican-led draft in July, while the Senate Agriculture Committee released a bipartisan draft in November.
Both must go through their committees before a floor vote on the bill or a combined version.
The plans suggest that Congress could grant the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more authority over digital assets, while the Securities and Exchange Commission would continue to oversee areas such as exchange-traded funds.
Grayscale said the bill could “facilitate deeper integration between public blockchains and traditional finance” and support regulated exchanges and on-chain issuance.
Wider participation can follow clearer rules.
“I expect an increasing number of jurisdictions to establish clear and transparent regulatory frameworks,” Ruslan Lienkha of YouHodler said in comments shared with Cointelegraph.
Stablecoin framework moves to rulemaking
The GENIUS law, enacted in July 2025, establishes a federal framework for stable payment coins.
It takes effect 18 months after enactment, after regulators approve the implementing rules, which indicates 2026 or later, according to Cointelegraph.
The Treasury Department opened two rounds of comments in August and September. Experts say a notice of proposed rulemaking could be public in the first half of 2026.
Other banking regulators are also engaged. On December 16, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation proposed allowing subsidiaries of supervised banks to issue payment stablecoins under the GENIUS criteria.
The industry expects banks to test on-chain financing under clearer rules.
“As regulatory clarity increases, including through laws like the GENIUS Act, banks are increasingly exploring on-chain tools,” Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, said in comments shared with Cointelegraph.
Leadership changes at CFTC shape supervision
In 2025, four of the CFTC’s five commissioners resigned, leaving Republican Caroline Pham as interim chair and sole commissioner in December.
The White House initially nominated former commissioner Brian Quintenz, then withdrew its choice in September after pushback from industry figures, Cointelegraph reported.
Trump then nominated SEC official Michael Selig, who left the Senate Agriculture Committee in November and was confirmed by a 53-43 vote as part of a field of nominees.
As of December, the administration had not announced nominees for the remaining commissioner positions.
States test their reserves and tax policies, Arizona in the spotlight
Texas has created a state-run fund that can hold Bitcoin.
Officials said in November that the fund held $5 million in shares of BlackRock’s Bitcoin spot ETF and planned to invest an additional $5 million directly into Bitcoin, a move that could come in 2026, according to Cointelegraph.
Other states are moving to reservations and taxes. Arizona lawmakers introduced SB 1044 to exempt virtual currency from taxation and SB 1045 to prohibit local taxes or fees on blockchain node operators.
A related resolution, SCR 1003, would exclude virtual currency from property taxes, CryptoNews reported.
The knot bill could pass the Legislature, while broader exemptions would require voter approval in November 2026.
Arizona has already treated airdrops as gifts for state income taxes since December 2022, allows gas expenses to be deducted from gains and losses, and allows state agencies to accept crypto through approved providers.
The state also has a law allowing the government to claim ownership of abandoned digital assets after three years.
Arizona’s Bitcoin reserve push has been contested. An earlier bill was vetoed in May, and a revised version later passed the state Senate 16 to 14, CryptoNews reported.
Federal tax debates return to Capitol
Congress is preparing to overhaul the taxation of digital assets after years of relying on 2014 IRS guidance.
In December, Rep. Max Miller said a bill to modernize digital asset taxation could pass before the August 2026 recess, according to CryptoNews.
Most recently, bipartisan House lawmakers released a discussion draft that would exempt small stablecoin payments from capital gains tax and allow a five-year deferral on staking and mining rewards.
Through 2026, Senate market structure, GENIUS rulemaking, CFTC appointments, and state-level efforts will set the tone for how digital assets will be supervised, traded, and taxed.
Investors and businesses will be watching committee schedules, proposed rules and November ballots for upcoming signals.
