Michael A. Gayed, CFA

The Treasury Just Killed Its Two Biggest Crypto Surveillance Rules

FinCEN withdrew the unhosted wallet reporting rule after six years of limbo and the Section 311 mixing designation with it. The gates stay open wider, the surveillance towers stay unmanned, and the BSA skeleton still stands.

The SEC Just Proposed Six New Ways Around the Wealth Test

CPA, CFA, CFP, Series 79, Series 86/87, and a new FINRA exam: the knowledge test is quietly replacing the money test, and a companion proposal opens the performance fee door too.

The FCC Just Erased a Cap Congress Wrote Into Law

The 39 percent national TV ownership cap died quietly on a Thursday, 55 days after the vote that killed it.

Two Circuits Just Disagreed About What a Swap Is. The Prediction Market Is 1-For-3.

The Sixth Circuit narrowed the CEA swap definition and let Ohio and Tennessee regulate Kalshi's sports contracts. The Third Circuit said the opposite. The circuit split now points at the Supreme Court.

The Treasury Just Opened 60 Million Investment Accounts in One Day

Automatic enrollment completed October 1: every eligible child under 18 now has a Trump Account. The only number that matters now is the claim rate on 60 million passive accounts.

The FCC Just Freed a Gigahertz and Rewrote Its Own Environmental Footprint

The September 30 vote opened 1,000+ MHz for satellite broadband and removed FCC NEPA review from spacecraft operations, spectrum authorizations and earth stations. Same meeting, same bottleneck.

The FDIC Just Closed a 30-Year Gap in Interstate Banking. Digital Banks Were the Reason.

The FDIC's state bank parity proposal extends national-bank preemption to state-chartered banks across state lines, with or without a branch. The no-branch clause is the load-bearing wall.

NHTSA Just Cut the Mileage Mandate by a Third. The Enforcement Died Last Year.

The 2031 fleet target falls from 50.4 to 34.9 mpg. But the penalty died in July 2025, and new-credit trading phases out from MY 2028.

The FTC Just Rewrote Its Rulebook. The Quiet Change Is the Deregulatory Signal.

The FTC's September 24 rule package changes the agency's own operating machinery. The quiet signal is burden-sensitive process, not weaker antitrust law.

The SEC Just Made Crypto's Legal Boundary Easier to Read. It Did Not Make It Disappear.

The SEC's new crypto FAQ clarifies staking receipts, functional networks, buybacks, and promoter questions. The conditions are the story.

The CFTC Just Put Tokenized Collateral Inside the Rulebook. The Footnotes Are the Rule.

The CFTC's new FAQ permits tokenized forms of permitted investments and onchain records, but the operating conditions remain the rule.

Cboe Just Loosened the Clearing Door. The Market-Structure Signal Is Bigger.

Four Cboe venues clarified that non-member firms may clear for members, while the qualified-clearing-agency and guarantee chain stays in place.