How to operate in digital assets while the regulations evolve

The Rules of the Road Are Being Written Right Now in Real Time

A new CRC-Oyster Roundtable brings together industry leaders and regulatory experts to unpack the fast-moving world of digital assets, and what the SEC’s historic shift in posture means for everyone operating in this space.

If you’ve been watching the digital assets space with one eye- half-curious, half-cautious – this panel covers a lot of ground, and the timing is relevant. We are at a genuine inflection point: legislation is moving, regulators are signaling, and the window to position yourself intelligently is open right now.

Start from the ground up

The conversation opens where every serious discussion should: the fundamentals. What is a blockchain, really? How do distributed ledgers work? What does tokenization actually mean for real-world assets?

Before digging into more nuanced discussion about DeFi (what it is today, what it’s becoming, and how to think about it clearly), the panel gives an overview of:

• Blockchains, distributed ledgers, and why the architecture matters for trust;
• Tokenization of real-world assets: what it enables and what it changes; and
• The spectrum from crypto-native instruments to securitized digital products.

Featuring Dan Garrett and Jeff Gearhart from CRC-Oyster, joined by Susan Light and Mike Didiuk from Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, practitioners who live at the intersection of financial structuring and regulatory strategy.

Navigating Regulation in Real Time

The GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act are working their way through Congress, and the implications are substantial. The panel breaks down what each piece of legislation targets, where stablecoins fit into the new framework, and how the reconciliation process in the Senate is shaping the final contours of what compliance will look like.

Critically, the SEC itself has made moves to change the game. Under recent leadership signals, the agency is pivoting away from years of enforcement-as-rulemaking. The strategy of suing first and clarifying later is giving way to a posture of proactive guidance and regulatory clarity. That is not a small shift; it’s an invitation to engage thoughtfully with the space before the rules solidify.

“It’s not a race to win by one; it’s a race to become operable for all.”

Jeff Gearhart Managing Director Partner with Oyster Consulting

How to operate now, before the dust settles

The most practical portion of the discussion addresses the question every thoughtful participant in this space is wrestling with: how do you build and operate responsibly in a space where the regulatory framework is still being written? The panel doesn’t offer vague reassurance; they offer insights, real considerations, and a candid look at where legal and structural risk currently lives.

From the SEC’s evolving view of tokenization and securitization, to what DeFi platforms need to start thinking about today, the panel navigates the ambiguity honestly, offering insights for operating now through uncertainty, not false or hasty assurance that it has resolved.

The panelists illuminate how the culmination of this regulatory and legislative activity isn’t a contest between incumbents and challengers, between TradFi and crypto-native players. If the emerging legislative architecture works as intended, it creates an interoperable, broadly accessible market, and the firms that position themselves well now will define what that market looks like.

Watch the CRC-Oyster Roundtable for the kind of insight that comes from professionals with direct lines into the regulatory dialogue, the deal structures, and the compliance frameworks taking shape right now.