In This Newsletter
FinTech at Global Conference
Clarity Act Advances in Senate Committee
Executive Order on FinTech Innovation
FinTech at Global Conference
This May, the Milken Institute convened its 29th annual Global Conference at The Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills. FinTech programming centered on the accelerating institutionalization of digital assets, the stakes of digital asset legislation, the cross-border impact of financial technology, and the emerging infrastructure of tokenized markets.
Digital assets programming included “Unstoppable: The Digital Assets Train Has Left the Station,” moderated by Michael Piwowar and featuring John Koudounis, Tom Lee, Peter Mintzberg, Brett Tejpaul, and Mary-Catherine Lader. The session considered how digital assets are reshaping the financial system, with panelists drawing on the rapid mainstreaming of crypto-native products, entry points for institutional applications, and the growing role of structured exposure as evidence that adoption has entered a new stage.
The discission continued with "Digital Assets: Institutional Capital in a Tokenized World," moderated by Susan Li and featuring speakers Yoni Assia, Daniel Gamba, Jaime Leverton, Yuval Rooz, and US Representative Bryan Steil. The session examined how crypto-native and traditional financial institutions are integrating tokenized instruments into treasury operations, custody frameworks, and liquidity management at scale.
The explosion in interest in stablecoins since the passage of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act was the focus of the roundtable "In Stablecoin We Trust: The Future of the Dollar," moderated by Nicole Valentine and featuring Lasse Clausen, Denise Leonhard, Chris Maurice, Christopher Perkins, and Caroline Pham. The session examined how dollar-backed stablecoins and tokenized US Treasuries are becoming core collateral and settlement rails in digital markets, even as policymakers debate their implications for monetary sovereignty, bank funding, and dollar dominance.
FinTech programming concluded with “FinTech's Global Playbook: Breaking Barriers and Borders,” moderated by Nicole Valentine with Roberto Campos Neto, Denelle Dixon, Nigel Morris, Haseeb Qureshi, and Barry Silbert. The panel drew on the experiences of the FinTech leaders assembled, diving into regional FinTech markets including Latin America, Middle East, Africa, and North America, as well as blockchain and AI adoption in financial services.
Clarity Act Advances in Senate Committee
On May 14, the Senate Banking Committee held its long-awaited markup of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, advancing the crypto market structure bill in a 15-9 vote, securing bipartisan support from two Democrats, Senators Ruben Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks, according to CoinDesk. The vote ends a four-month stall that had frustrated the industry since a January markup collapsed, and moves the bill toward a full Senate floor vote.
The rewards fight that derailed the January markup was resolved in early May, when Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks released compromise text barring crypto firms from paying interest or yield on stablecoin balances while preserving activity-based rewards tied to genuine platform participation such as payments, transfers, and trading, CoinDesk reported. The American Bankers Association still objected, with member banks reportedly sending more than 8,000 letters to Senate offices arguing the compromise goes too far in favor of stablecoin issuers, Fortune reported.
The updated draft incorporates the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, which exempts non-custodial developers and validators from classification as money transmitters, easing their Bank Secrecy Act compliance obligations, Tokenist detailed. The question of how far federal authority extends into the DeFi perimeter remains contested. All Democratic members voted in favor of a Warren amendment that would have given Treasury the authority to sanction DeFi services, including previously sanctioned mixing protocols, while all 13 Republican members voted against it, Elliptic observed.
The Van Hollen ethics amendment, which would have barred senior government officials from holding certain crypto business interests, failed 11-13 and remains the largest unresolved issue heading to the floor, The Crypto Times noted. The conflict-of-interest provision falls outside the Senate Banking Committee's jurisdiction and must be inserted later; Democrats have said they will not allow the bill to move on the floor without it, while White House officials have pushed back against any language that singles out a specific officeholder, per CoinDesk.
The Senate Banking Committee version must be reconciled with the parallel CFTC authority bill that cleared the Senate Agriculture Committee in January, and the merged text must then survive a full Senate floor vote before any reconciliation with the House version, per Latham and Watkins' US Crypto Policy Tracker. Much of the Democratic support necessary to get the bill to 60 votes now hinges on whether ethics language gets added. Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno have both warned that failure to pass the bill before the August recess could push the next viable legislative window to 2030 or beyond.
Executive Order on FinTech Innovation
On May 19, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal financial regulators to review and streamline the rules, guidance, supervisory practices, and application processes that govern FinTech firms,. The order also directs the Federal Reserve to evaluate whether nonbank financial companies and digital asset firms can gain direct access to Fed payment accounts and services through what has been called “skinny master account.” The order is the latest in a series of administration actions aimed at positioning the US as a global leader in digital assets and financial technology, Troutman Pepper Locke noted.
The order directs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFTC, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, National Credit Union Administration, and Securities and Exchange Commission to identify rules that unduly impede FinTech firms from entering partnerships with federally regulated institutions or that could be amended to streamline the process for eligible FinTech firms seeking bank charters.
The day after the order was signed, the Federal Reserve Board requested public comment on a proposal to establish a special-purpose payment account for clearing and settling, building on its December 2025 request for public input. The executive order also comes after the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's approval in March 2026 of a limited-purpose account for Kraken Financial, a precedent that set parameters for what “skinny master account” might look like.