Here’s what you’ll find in today’s edition:

• Bitwise’s general counsel talks tailwinds and obstacles in the new SEC era.  

• US Big Tech stocks lead the way for post-tariff trade recovery. 

• There’s a new sheriff in town at the CFPB. 

SEC in ‘purgatorial state’ despite positive signs

January marked an end to SAB 121, welcomed Donald Trump’s crypto executive order and saw the creation of a new SEC task force. 

Pair that with an ETF filing surge, and it’s a good time to catch up with someone on the inside: Bitwise general counsel Katherine Dowling. 

Her firm, after all, has plotted ETFs that would hold XRP, solana and (as of more recently) dogecoin.

Dowling, an ex-assistant US attorney in the economic crimes unit of the Northern District of California’s US Attorney’s Office, described regulatory work as “siloed” in recent years — with SEC Chair Gary Gensler and the CFTC’s Rostin Behnam having “different views behind the scenes.”

Now, the signal of more SEC-CFTC cooperation is one of the biggest changes from the Gensler-era (“which now we can refer to as the past,” she quipped).  

The crypto task force seems “incredibly genuine” based on dialogue Bitwise is having with the SEC, Dowling added.

That said, Dowling described the securities regulator as being in “a purgatorial state” with SEC chair nominee Paul Atkins not yet confirmed. Mark Uyeda is serving as acting chair.

The SEC appears to be waiting for “directive from up high” on how to handle litigations, for example. Like that case against Ripple you’ve probably read about.

“Overnight those don’t just go away, nor should they,” Dowling said. “But when you have new leadership, there’s a new set of eyes. Are we looking at the right things in this particular case? Is there a settlement stance where we can both get what we want?”

The Bitwise exec noted some assets remain “caught up like dolphins in the fish nets.” She’s alluding to those apparently classified as securities — SOL and XRP among them.

Something “needs to give” on that front before the SEC can move those ETF proposals along — justifying that purgatory, so to speak.

An ETF that holds dogecoin could have a clearer path, Dowling implied. After all, the SEC has not labeled DOGE a security.

Beyond the litigation/securities uncertainty, there’s the question of whether the SEC will require the existence of “a regulated market of significant size” (historically via CME-traded futures). 

SOL and XRP futures are coming, Dowling opined — and spot products beyond BTC and ETH exist in other jurisdictions. If the SEC wants to see XRP and solana futures operate for a while, we’ll have to wait for US products holding those.

“But if we can come at it from a different angle and provide another line of argument that gets them comfortable with that, that is great too,” Dowling said.

How long will this take?

She gave a little laugh (recalling her work with the SEC while at the US attorney’s office) before saying: “I always remind people … this is just one subset of what they’re doing.”

So, yeah, patience will be key. A likely launch in the nearer term? A US ETF holding both bitcoin and ether. Bitwise got the 19b-4 approval on that. The SEC must now clear the S-1.

— Ben Strack

As the US financial system adapts to the rise of digital assets, institutional leaders are making their next big moves. What role will crypto play in global markets? How are fund managers positioning for the future?

At DAS NYC, you’ll hear directly from decision-makers at VanEck, Brevan Howard, and Binance as they unpack the evolving regulatory, macro, and investment landscape. From ETFs to onchain finance, these conversations will define the next era of institutional crypto.

Don’t just watch from the sidelines, be in the room where it happens.

📅 March 18-20 | NYC

The number of working groups Blockchain Association launched today in an effort to build industry consensus and policy priorities.

The organization on Tuesday revealed leaders for each of the units. The different groups focus on various sectors, including centralized exchanges, DeFi, stablecoins, compliance and government relations.

Bolstered by Big Tech, US equities were on the road to recovery after yesterday’s tariff-fueled rout. 

The Magnificent Seven stocks were in the green midway through the session, with Meta and Alphabet as the big winners. Meta is now riding a record 12-session winning streak while Alphabet saw positive momentum ahead of the company’s earnings release later today. 

We’re about a third of the way into earnings season and results have been fairly solid. 

As of last Friday, when 36% of S&P 500 companies had reported, 77% had beat analysts’ earnings expectations for Q4 2024. This is in line with last year and slightly ahead of the 10-year average. 63% of companies so far have beat on revenue expectations, which is a bit below the 5-year and 10-year averages. 

Today’s rebound aside, US Big Tech is still lagging behind big foreign names. NVDA, down almost 15% year to date, is the worst-performing Big Tech stock across every region. Alibaba (+21% in 2025) is the best. 

Other top performers so far this year include Hong-Kong-listed Xiaomi (+16%) and Seoul-listed Hynix (+10%). 

Zooming out, the CBOE Volatility Index, known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” was on the decline Tuesday after a brief surge to around 19.6 on Monday. Anything above 19.5 (the long-run average) is generally viewed as elevated. 

While earnings continue to trickle in, these reports will impact share prices. But the bigger catalyst for further corrections is the tariff situation and potential fallout. 

The uncertainty of if and when these tariffs may come into play, and the unpredictability of it all, is going to continue to weigh on global equities.

— Casey Wagner

Newly-confirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent now has an additional federal agency to oversee, and he’s hitting the ground running. 

Bessent was named acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday after President Trump fired Rohit Chopra. Chopra, a Biden-era nominee, was known for his aggressive regulatory approach at the agency, which saw major fines against names including Wells Fargo and Citigroup. 

Now, Bessent has essentially put the CFPB on lockdown. 

Staffers are to halt any litigation, investigation or enforcement proceedings and refrain from issuing public statements. The effective dates for any previously approved rules will also be suspended, per a memo shared with Bloomberg. 

The switch-up was seen as particularly positive for the crypto industry, which was also a target under Chopra. The CFPB last month proposed expanding the agency’s electronic funds oversight to include cryptocurrencies. 

While the rule is unlikely to ever be finalized, we will note that even the existence of such a proposal could influence pending litigation matters. The language in the proposal could also be adopted by states, several of which already have almost identical electronic fund transfer regulations. 

The Trump administration has not yet nominated anyone to head the CFPB. It’s also unclear whether Bessent will hold the acting role until a permanent head is tapped.

— Casey Wagner

• Crypto/AI czar David Sacks was slated to hold a press conference around the time Forward Guidance was published. We plan to break that down in tomorrow’s edition. 

• Senator Bill Hagerty was reportedly set to introduce stablecoin legislation today. We’ll also have more on that.

• Bitcoin was trading around $99,600 at 2 pm ET — down nearly 2% from 24 hours prior. ETH’s price was ~$2,840 at that time.

• While MicroStrategy took a break from buying bitcoin, Semler Scientific revealed a purchase of 871 BTC (from Jan. 11 to Feb. 3) for $88.5 million. The company now holds 3,192 BTC.