BlackRock is ramping up its engagement with U.S. regulators, meeting with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force on May 9 to present its growing suite of digital asset products and to push forward conversations around the evolving regulatory landscape.
The firm outlined offerings such as its spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), Ethereum fund (ETHA), and its tokenized liquidity fund (BUIDL), using the session to showcase how these products align with current market trends.
The dialogue extended into broader regulatory themes, including staking frameworks, tokenized securities, and how crypto-based exchange-traded products (ETPs) might meet compliance under U.S. securities laws.
A significant portion of the meeting focused on approval conditions for crypto ETPs. BlackRock sought clarity on meeting the requirements under Section 6(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and discussed the possibility of introducing a temporary regulatory structure to guide the approval process for these evolving products.
The conversation also touched on future options trading tied to crypto ETPs, with a technical discussion around setting risk limits, usage thresholds, and liquidity metrics to ensure market integrity.
This meeting signals BlackRock’s ongoing effort to shape policy in tandem with regulators, aiming to align institutional crypto finance with the SEC’s expectations.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has spotlighted a significant acceleration in institutional crypto adoption, driven largely by the surging popularity of exchange-traded funds and increased use of Coinbase Prime among major corporations.
Jefferies chief market strategist David Zervos believes an upcoming power shift at the Federal Reserve could benefit U.S. equity markets.
Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered crypto custody bank, is urging its institutional clients to move away from major stablecoins like USDC, Agora USD (AUSD), and Usual USD (USD0), recommending instead a shift to the Global Dollar (USDG) — a stablecoin issued by Paxos and backed by a consortium that includes Anchorage itself.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has voiced concerns over the rise of zero-knowledge (ZK) digital identity projects, specifically warning that systems like World — formerly Worldcoin and backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman — could undermine pseudonymity in the digital world.