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Written in collaboration with Arik Galansky The GENIUS Act’s passage and the recent release of the Report from the Presidents Working Group on Digital Asset Markets reflects a pivotal shift in how the U.S. financial system is preparing for blockchain innovation.

There was little evidence of a summer wind-down in July’s global developments on digital assets. So much so, it is somehow mid-August already! Below are the digital asset policy developments that caught my attention most since the last roundup.

Project Acacia is a research initiative led by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) that explores how digital forms of money—including central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins, and deposit tokens—can support the development of wholesale tokenized asset markets in Australia. Project Acacia is being conducted in two phases.

There’s no summer slowdown this year. Digital asset momentum is accelerating—from PSPs integrating stablecoins to banks laying groundwork for tokenized flows. At Fireblocks, I’m seeing that pace firsthand. And this isn’t a seasonal spike that fades with the weather. It’s a signal of what’s ahead.

If you’ve been in digital assets long enough, you’ve felt the shift—from experimentation to execution. Banks, custodians, exchanges, and fintechs have laid the groundwork for a new financial ecosystem; one that can support the scale, compliance, and interoperability demands of global finance. But that isn’t just about where assets are stored. If you’re still treating custody as an endpoint rather than a gateway, that’s a problem.

The Trump administration is making good on its commitment to position the United States as the global hub for digital assets—starting with regulatory clarity. The White House Working Group’s latest report offers the clearest articulation yet of where U.S. policymakers are headed, coming right on the heels of the passage of GENIUS. What’s most notable? This isn’t abstract guidance or high-level principle-setting.