On 4 February 2026, the Irish Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment published the General Scheme of the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026 (the Scheme), following Government Decisions of 4 March 2025 and 22 July 2025 approving Ireland's distributed regulatory model for the EU AI Act. The Scheme is at the pre-legislative stage: it sets out the Heads of Bill — the legislative blueprint — but has not yet been introduced to the Oireachtas as a formal Bill.

Italy's Framework Law on Artificial Intelligence, Law No. 132 of 23 September 2025 (Legge 23 settembre 2025, n. 132), entered into force on 10 October 2025. The law was published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 223 of 25 September 2025. It constitutes Italy's primary domestic AI legislation and applies in conjunction with, and subject to, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council (the EU AI Act), to which it expressly cross-references under Article

On 29 January 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) jointly announced Project Crypto at the CFTC's Washington D.C. headquarters. The initiative transforms what had been an internal SEC initiative into a bilateral inter-agency program. Project Crypto is in the policy and pre-rulemaking stage: no final rules have been promulgated, but agency heads have directed staff to begin drafting specific rulemakings and

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) filed legal proceedings against global crypto exchange HTX (formerly Huobi) on 21 October 2025 in the Chancery Division of the High Court of England and Wales. On 4 February 2026, the High Court granted the FCA permission to serve those proceedings out of the jurisdiction and by alternative means. The action is at the litigation stage, with no final judgment issued. The FCA simultaneously publicised the matter to UK consumers on 10 Februa

On January 21, 2026, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) and the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) jointly published a set of principles titled "Principles for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence." The document is directed at Ontario public sector bodies — including provincial ministries, agencies, municipalities, school boards, and health-care institutions — that deploy or procure AI systems affecting individuals. The publication is a jo

On February 11, 2026, the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) handed down judgment in Emotional Perception AI Limited v Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2026] UKSC 3, allowing the appeal of Emotional Perception AI Ltd. The Court, constituted by Lords Briggs, Hamblen, Leggatt, Stephens, and Kitchin, set aside the Hearing Officer's refusal of Emotional Perception's patent application and formally abandoned the four-step Aerotel test used by UK courts since 2006 to a

Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 39 (AB 39) and Senate Bill 401 (SB 401) on October 13, 2023, together constituting the Digital Financial Assets Law (DFAL) (California Financial Code section 3100 et seq.). AB 1934, signed September 29, 2024, extended the license effective date from July 1, 2025 to July 1, 2026. Under Financial Code section 3103, persons who exchange, transfer, or store digital financial assets with or on behalf of California residents, or who issue digita

On February 11, 2026, Paxful Holdings Inc., a now-defunct peer-to-peer virtual currency trading platform, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California to a criminal monetary penalty of $4 million — the maximum the company could pay, per DOJ's independent financial analysis — following its December 10, 2025 guilty plea to a three-count criminal information. Prosecution was led by the DOJ Criminal Division's Money Laundering, Narcotics and For

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register on March 2, 2026, to implement the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act). The proposal is at the pre-final stage: the comment period closes May 1, 2026, and no final rule has been issued. The NPRM covers the issuance of payment stablecoins and related activities by entities subject to OCC jurisdiction, includ

What operational and compliance changes should EU investment firms, insurers, and intermediaries plan for after the 18 December 2025 provisional political agreement between the European Parliament and the Council on the Retail Investment Strategy (RIS) package, covering retail advice and suitability, “value for money” checks, inducement controls, third‑party marketing (including financial influencers), and PRIIPs key information document disclosures? The 18 December 2025 deal

Generative AI providers are now facing materially different answers to a deceptively simple question: when does a model “contain” protected content, and who is responsible when that content shows up in outputs. In late 2025, the High Court of England and Wales (Chancery Division) and the Regional Court of Munich I each issued detailed rulings tied to real-world model behavior, while the USPTO’s Appeals Review Panel issued a precedential patent-eligibility decision that is dir

Many Web3 projects and individuals earn fees for introductions, referrals, and deal sourcing. In the European Union, the legal question is when an “introducer” crosses into regulated intermediation under MiFID II or MiCA. MiFID II: when an introduction becomes an investment service MiFID II Article 5 requires authorisation for investment services. “Investment advice” is a personal recommendation on transactions in financial instruments (Article 4(1)(4)). Annex I lists the key

The legal question: how can a tokenized real‑world asset (RWA) financing program for operating manufacturing facilities be structured so each investor contracts with the specific facility pool that owns and finances the facility assets, while a protocol-level entity coordinates issuance and voting mechanics across multiple facilities? This case study describes an implementation using a Republic of the Marshall Islands decentralized autonomous organization limited liability co

This case study documents the legal-structural implementation we executed for a protocol development client preparing a public token sale contemporaneous with mainnet launch. The engagement objective was to construct a governance-credible and operationally separable architecture in which ecosystem stewardship, sale execution, and commercial development operations were isolated into distinct legal entities, with defined authority boundaries, traceable funds flows, and publicat

Blockchain (a type of distributed ledger) is designed as a distributed, tamper-resistant, and transparent  data structure with no centralized control. Transactions are grouped into blocks cryptographically chained together, and a consensus mechanism  (e.g. proof of work or proof of stake) ensures all nodes agree on the valid state. These properties— decentralization  (many participants replicate data), immutability  (once recorded, data cannot be altered without detection), a

Scope and Objectives of PSD2 vs. MiCA PSD2 – Payment Services Directive (2015) : PSD2 provides the core legal framework for retail payment services in the EU, aiming to foster an integrated EU payments market and enhance innovation, competition, and security in electronic payments. Building on the first Payment Services Directive (2007), PSD2 addressed barriers to new types of payment services (e.g. fintech payment initiation and account aggregation) while improving consumer

Introduction and Official Source The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act of 2025 , commonly known as the GENIUS Act , is a proposed U.S. federal law to create a comprehensive regulatory framework for payment stablecoins . The bill’s official text (S.1582 in the 119th Congress) is available on Congress.gov . It defines “payment stablecoin” as a digital asset used for payments or settlement that is redeemable for a fixed monetary value  (for ex

ESMA’s new guidelines stem directly from Article 92(3) of MiCA, which obliges the authority to harmonise how national competent authorities (NCAs) combat market abuse in crypto-asset markets by 30 June 2025. The final report, published on 29 April 2025, therefore fills a regulatory gap that MiCA itself created: the regulation outlawed insider dealing, unlawful disclosure and manipulation involving crypto-assets, yet supervisory cultures and data capabilities still vary widely

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being integrated into arbitration as a tool to enhance efficiency and decision-making. In broad terms, AI refers to computer systems capable of tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, pattern recognition, and natural language processing. In arbitration, AI’s role so far has been largely assistive – helping arbitrators and parties manage complex information and streamline procedures. For example, AI-driven software can

The Guidelines apply to competent authorities, financial market participants, and any individual or entity engaged in crypto-asset...