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Blockchain Monitor

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Weekly Blockchain Blog – Feburary 17, 2026

Randal Shaheen Joins Panel for PLI’s Advertising Law Institute 2026

Data Counsel

“The Times They Are A-Changin’”: GSA Signals a New Era for CUI Compliance

Federal Court Vacates and Sets Aside the New HSR Form

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<a href="#crypto">Banks, Crypto Companies and DeFi Platforms Announce New Crypto Products</a>

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<a href="#blockchain">New Blockchain Networks’ Launch Backed by Major US Financial Firms</a>

<a href="#ncua">NCUA Proposed Rule Addresses GENIUS Act Procedures for FICU Subsidiaries</a>

<a href="#cftc">CFTC Clarifies Definition of Payment Stablecoin in No-Action Letter</a>

<a href="#occ">[] Letter Critiques OCC’s Approval of Digital Asset Company Trust Charters</a>

<a href="#doj">DOJ Announces Three Sentencings Involving Crypto Fraud, Money Laundering</a>

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Banks, Crypto Companies and DeFi Platforms Announce New Crypto Products

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/RobertAMusiala">Robert A. Musiala Jr.</a>

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A major U.S. blockchain solution provider, Ripple, recently announced “a series of strategic collaborations that expand the capabilities of <a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fripple.com%2Fsolutions%2Fdigital-asset-custody%2F&amp;esheet=54420931&amp;newsitemid=20260209282610&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Ripple+Custody&amp;index=2&amp;md5=1c2e85203a274f8e365d717f82b493dc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ripple Custody</a>, reinforcing its position as one of the most institution-ready digital asset custody solutions on the market.” According to a press release, through a partnership with Securosys, Ripple Custody is able to provide institutions with “an out-of-the-box, enterprise-grade solution that can be deployed quickly … while retaining full control over their cryptographic keys.” The press release further notes that through a partnership with Figment, “Ripple and Figment enable banks, custodians, and regulated enterprises to offer staking for leading Proof-of-Stake networks, including Ethereum and Solana, without building validator infrastructure or compromising operational controls.”

In another recent press release, one of the largest banks in Denmark announced that its customers will for the first time be able to gain “exposure to the two most common cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to the press release, BTC and ETH investments made through the bank will be made via exchange traded products (ETPs).

In the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) by volume recently announced a partnership with Securitize, a real-world asset tokenization platform. According to a blog post, the partnership will enable the DEX to provide access to BUIDL, a tokenized fund launched by a major U.S. asset manager.

And in a final notable item, a major U.S. crypto exchange recently launched AgentKit, “a powerful new framework that bridges the gap between AI and blockchain technology.” According to a blog post, AgentKit “allows developers to create AI agents that can autonomously interact with blockchain networks, opening up new possibilities for automated, crypto-powered applications.”

For more information, please refer to the following links:

<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260209282610/en/Ripple-Accelerates-Institutional-Custody-Adoption-with-Security-Compliance-and-Staking-Capabilities">Ripple Accelerates Institutional Custody Adoption with Security, Compliance, and Staking Capabilities</a>

<a href="https://danskebank.com/news-and-insights/news-archive/press-releases/2026/pr11022026">[] Bank’s customers now have access to cryptocurrency-related investments</a>

<a href="https://blog.uniswap.org/unlocking-defi-liquidity-for-buidl">[] and Securitize Partner to Unlock DeFi Liquidity for [] BUIDL</a>

<a href="https://www.coinbase.com/en-gb/developer-platform/discover/launches/introducing-agentkit">Introducing AgentKit</a>

New Blockchain Networks’ Launch Backed by Major US Financial Firms

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/professionals/amos-kim/">Amos Kim</a>

LayerZero, a blockchain interoperability developer, recently announced the launch of “Zero,” a new blockchain network designed to eliminate scalability challenges and establish a global market infrastructure. According to a press release, the Zero network is being developed in collaboration with several major U.S. financial services companies, including a leading global market maker, a major post-trade financial services company, a global stock exchange operator, an investment management firm and a major cloud computing provider. The press release notes that the market maker has also made a strategic investment in the protocol’s native token, ZRO. The release further notes that the Zero network utilizes a “heterogeneous architecture” and zero-knowledge proofs to decouple transaction execution from verification, aiming to support up to 2 million transactions per second and facilitate the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs).

Separately, a major U.S. retail stock and crypto trading platform announced the launch of a public testnet for its proprietary Ethereum Layer 2 network. Built on Arbitrum technology, the chain is reportedly designed to support “financial-grade” decentralized products, including tokenized asset platforms and perpetual futures exchanges. The announcement states that the network will focus on tokenized RWAs and has already integrated with infrastructure partners such as Alchemy, Allium, Chainlink, LayerZer and TRM. The platform reportedly committed $1 million to a developer program to support activity on the new testnet, with a full mainnet launch expected later in 2026. According to the company, incentives will encourage developer adoption and broaden participation in the ecosystem. The announcement also notes that the network will support a range of use cases designed to meet the platform’s vision for accessible, on‑chain financial tools.

<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260210491975/en/LayerZero-Announces-Zero-Blockchain-to-Build-Global-Market-Infrastructure-In-Collaboration-with-Citadel-Securities-The-Depository-Trust-Clearing-Corporation-Intercontinental-Exchange-With-Strategic-Investment-in-ZRO-from-Citadel-Securities">LayerZero Announces Zero Blockchain to Build Global Market Infrastructure In Collaboration with Citadel Securities, The Depository Trust &amp; Clearing Corporation, Intercontinental Exchange; With Strategic Investment in ZRO from Citadel Securities</a>

<a href="https://robinhood.com/us/en/newsroom/robinhood-chain-launches-public-testnet/">[] Chain Launches Public Testnet</a>

NCUA Proposed Rule Addresses GENIUS Act Procedures for FICU Subsidiaries

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/RobertAMusiala">Robert A. Musiala Jr.</a><a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/VeronicaReynolds"></a>

The U.S. National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) recently published a proposed rule in the Federal Register seeking comment on proposed regulations to implement portions of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act). As noted in the proposed rule, the GENIUS Act charges the NCUA with licensing, regulating and supervising payment stablecoin issuers that are subsidiaries of federally insured credit unions (FICUs) and requires the NCUA to issue implementing regulations by July 18. Accordingly, the proposed rule proposes regulations to implement the statutorily required process for the approval and licensure of permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs) subject to the NCUA’s jurisdiction. It also proposes regulations limiting FICUs to investing in NCUA-licensed PPSIs. Comments on the proposed rule must be received by April 13.

<a href="https://ncua.gov/newsroom/press-release/2026/ncua-proposes-rule-permitted-payment-stablecoin-issuer-applications">NCUA Proposes Rule for Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuer Applications</a>

<a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/02/12/2026-02868/investments-in-and-licensing-of-permitted-payment-stablecoins-issuers">Proposed Rule: Investments in and Licensing of Permitted Payment Stablecoins Issuers</a>

CFTC Clarifies Definition of Payment Stablecoin in No-Action Letter

On Feb. 6, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) published a press release announcing that it “has reissued <a href="https://www.cftc.gov/csl/25-40/download">CFTC Staff Letter 25-40</a> with a limited revision to the definition of ‘payment stablecoin.’” According to the CFTC press release, “[t]he revision specifies that a national trust bank may be a permitted issuer of a payment stablecoin for purposes of the no-action position” in <a href="https://www.cftc.gov/csl/25-40/download">CFTC Staff Letter 25-40</a>, which established a <a href="https://www.theblockchainmonitor.com/blogs/weekly-blockchain-monitor-december-15-2025/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digital assets pilot program </a>for certain digital assets, including BTC, ETH and USDC, to be used as collateral in derivatives markets. According to the press release, the CFTC did not intend to exclude payment stablecoins issued by national trust banks and therefore reissued <a href="https://www.cftc.gov/csl/25-40/download">CFTC Staff Letter 25-40</a> with an expanded definition of “payment stablecoin.”

<a href="https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/2439276?nl_pk=ca4d46e5-1b13-4225-b14f-c8b2b5d2e478&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=fintech&amp;utm_content=2026-02-09&amp;read_main=1&amp;nlsidx=0&amp;nlaidx=5">CFTC Updates Crypto Collateral Letter For Bank Stablecoins</a>

<a href="https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9180-26">CFTC Staff Reissues Letter 25-40 Updating Payment Stablecoin Definition</a>

[] Letter Critiques OCC’s Approval of Digital Asset Company Trust Charters

On February 11, a major bank advocacy organization sent a letter to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) addressing the OCC’s recent conditional approval of several OCC trust charter applications filed by digital asset companies. Among other things, the letter argues that “The regulatory responsibilities of many recent OCC charter applicants and likely many future OCC charter applicants are not readily identifiable today because Congress and federal and state regulators have not yet adequately defined regulatory frameworks applicable to entities engaged in stablecoin and other digital asset activities.” The letter notes that “entities engaged in activities substantially similar to those in which some recent OCC charter applicants presumably intend to engage have failed suddenly,” and cites FTX and Celsius as examples. The letter “encourages OCC to ensure that a national bank charter does not become a vehicle leveraged by entities to avoid, or attempting to avoid, registration with and scrutiny by the SEC, CFTC, or any other federal regulator.”

For more information, please refer to the following link:

<a href="https://www.aba.com/-/media/documents/reference-and-guides/aba-letter-to-occ-re-national-bank-chartering.pdf?rev=31daf5ba52424033acd613e2795fd9c2">[]: RE: RIN 1557-AF47; National Bank Chartering Notice of Proposed Rulemaking</a>

DOJ Announces Three Sentencings Involving Crypto Fraud, Money Laundering

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/professionals/om-m-kakani/">Om M. Kakani</a>

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that SafeMoon executive Braden John Karony was sentenced to 100 months in prison for conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme involving the digital asset SafeMoon. He was also ordered to forfeit approximately $7.5 million, with restitution to be determined later. According to the DOJ press release, Karony was convicted after a three‑week trial in May 2025, during which the jury also ordered the forfeiture of two residential properties.

Separately, in another DOJ action, Daren Li – a dual national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis – was sentenced in absentia to the statutory maximum of 20 years in prison and three years of supervised release for laundering more than $73 million obtained through an international cryptocurrency investment scheme operating from scam centers in Cambodia. According to a DOJ press release, Li had previously pleaded guilty in November 2024 and fled supervision in December 2025.

In a third DOJ action, Paxful Holdings Inc., an online peer‑to‑peer virtual currency trading platform, was sentenced following its guilty plea to conspiring to promote illegal prostitution, violate the Bank Secrecy Act and knowingly transmit funds derived from criminal offenses. The company was ordered to pay a $4 million criminal penalty based on its ability to pay. According to court documents, Paxful operated a virtual currency platform that facilitated transactions involving cash, gift cards and other items while failing to maintain required anti‑money laundering controls.

<a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/ceo-digital-asset-company-safemoon-sentenced-100-months-prison-multi-million-dollar">CEO of Digital Asset Company SafeMoon Sentenced to 100 Months in Prison for Multi-Million Dollar Crypto-Fraud Scheme</a>

<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/man-sentenced-20-years-prison-role-73-million-global-cryptocurrency-investment-scam">Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Role in $73 Million Global Cryptocurrency Investment Scam</a>

<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/virtual-asset-trading-platform-sentenced-violating-travel-act-and-other-federal-criminal">Virtual Asset Trading Platform Sentenced for Violating the Travel Act and Other Federal Criminal Charges</a>

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