eToro is now trading crypto in New York after a three-year BitLicense wait — and the federal rules to match are almost ready.
Key Takeaways
- eToro launches crypto trading in New York.
- ~20 cryptocurrencies available at launch; staking under active regulatory discussion with NYDFS.
- Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal says Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is “very close”.
- EDX Markets – backed by Citadel, Schwab, and Fidelity – applies for OCC national trust bank charter.
For three years, eToro held a BitLicense it couldn’t fully use. The New York State Department of Financial Services granted the approval in February 2023, the first issued after the collapse of FTX, when regulatory scrutiny of crypto platforms had reached its highest point in the industry’s history. It stopped waiting on April 1, 2026.
Residents of New York State can now trade cryptocurrencies on eToro’s platform alongside stocks, ETFs, and options, completing the company’s crypto footprint across 48 U.S. states. The launch arrives weeks after eToro listed on Nasdaq under the ticker ETOR, closing a chapter that began with a compliance battle and ended on America’s most watched stock exchange.
Why New York Took Three Years
Andrew McCormick, Head of eToro US, was candid about what the delay actually came down to. During the Biden administration, he told The Block, the firm was not in a rush to activate its New York license. It wasn’t a friendly time to grow in U.S. crypto, “even if we have the proper licenses.” That calculation has now changed.
New York’s BitLicense is the most demanding state-level crypto regulatory framework in the United States. Fewer than 40 operators have received one in over a decade since its introduction in 2015. eToro built the required compliance stack, capital reserves, AML infrastructure, consumer protection commitments, continuous NYDFS oversight, through the worst period in the industry’s recent history, including a 2024 SEC settlement that temporarily reduced its U.S. crypto offering to just Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ether.
New York users will initially access approximately 20 approved cryptocurrencies, a fraction of the 115 assets available across eToro’s other 74 operating markets. The gap reflects NYDFS’s individual asset approval process. Staking services are in active discussion with regulators. More than 9 million New Yorkers now have platform access, the last large reservoir of domestic demand eToro couldn’t reach. According to the company’s own Retail Investor Beat survey, 36% of U.S. retail investors already hold crypto, with an additional 17% planning to increase their exposure.
McCormick left one thought on the table: “The U.S. currently has different regulatory frameworks by state. A federal-level market structure bill is needed.”
That bill may be days away.
The Bill That Could Settle Everything
On April 1, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal stated publicly in an interview for FOX, that a deal on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is “very close”, with the final obstacle expected to resolve within 48 hours, according to Seeking Alpha.
The legislation would end what the industry has called the “regulation by enforcement” era, drawing a definitive jurisdictional line between the SEC and CFTC over digital assets and giving platforms a rulebook to build against rather than a legal risk to manage around.
One provision has blocked the bill since early 2024: stablecoin yield. Traditional banks have lobbied against allowing stablecoin holders to earn interest on idle balances, warning of deposit flight, customers moving savings from banks into higher-yielding digital wallets. Grewal’s position is direct: there is “no evidence of deposit flight,” and banning stablecoin yield hands a competitive advantage to foreign platforms operating beyond U.S. jurisdiction.
A tiered compromise is forming. Lawmakers are considering a structure that prohibits passive yield on idle balances while permitting rewards tied to active platform usage, payments, transfers, and transactions. Whether that satisfies both the banking lobby and the crypto industry remains genuinely open. Some Senate sources suggest the bill text may be withheld until next week to prevent opponents from organizing a stall ahead of the markup hearing. Grewal is targeting a Senate Banking Committee hearing within weeks and a full floor vote before the 2026 midterm election cycle makes major legislation harder to move.
If it passes, the Clarity Act completes what last year’s GENIUS Act started, which regulated stablecoin issuers but left market structure and yield questions unanswered. Together the two bills would represent the most comprehensive federal digital asset regulatory framework the United States has ever enacted.
The Institutional Infrastructure Arriving With It
While eToro and Coinbase occupy the retail and legislative headlines, the institutional backbone of the U.S. crypto market is being assembled underneath them, and the most significant move this week came from EDX Markets.
The institutional crypto exchange, backed by Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, and Fidelity Digital Assets, has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter. CEO Tony Acuña-Rohter shared the ambition with Boomberg directly: “Large banks will drive the next phase of crypto adoption,” and a federal charter provides the infrastructure to service them at scale.
If approved, the resulting entity – EDX Trust – would operate as a non-depository national bank focused exclusively on digital asset custody and settlement, structurally separated from EDX’s order-matching platform to eliminate the conflict-of-interest risks that defined crypto exchange failures. One regulator, all 50 states, no state-by-state licensing patchwork.
This move follows a wave of similar applications. Circle, Ripple, Crypto.com, and BitGo received conditional OCC approvals in late 2025 and early 2026, according to CoinDesk, with Coinbase and Morgan Stanley filing their own applications since. The OCC’s recent amendment to 12 CFR 5.20, clarifying the legal pathway for national trust banks to provide non-fiduciary crypto custody, opened the door, and institutional players are moving through it in sequence.
What the Data Says – and What Could Still Stop It
These are not coincidences of timing. They are the delayed outputs of a regulatory environment that spent two years blocking and has spent the last six months unlocking, and the data behind that shift is specific enough to take seriously.
According to eToro’s survey, 53% of U.S. retail investors either hold crypto or plan to increase exposure. Bitcoin ETF assets under management held within 7% of their October highs despite a 50% price decline, signaling institutional conviction that has not broken under sustained geopolitical pressure. The OCC has conditionally approved four major crypto custody applicants in four months. A Senate Banking Committee markup on the Clarity Act, the legislative step immediately before a floor vote, is now expected within weeks rather than years.
The counter-case is equally grounded. The stablecoin yield compromise remains unsigned, and the bill text has not been released publicly, meaning Senate opponents have not yet had the opportunity to respond. The banking lobby’s deposit flight argument may find more traction in committee than Grewal’s public confidence suggests. On the institutional side, OCC conditional approvals have not uniformly converted to full operational status, Circle and BitGo remain in extended review, and EDX’s application could face the same timeline.
Beyond the legislative and regulatory risk, the broader macro environment creates headwinds that regulatory progress alone cannot resolve: an active war in the Middle East, oil trading above $100 a barrel, and a Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index pinned at 8 for a month are the conditions under which institutional adoption has historically slowed regardless of what Washington does.
The architecture being built this week is real. Whether the environment holds long enough to let it stand is the question no filing, no bill, and no BitLicense can answer.
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Kosta joined the team in 2021 and quickly established himself with his thirst for knowledge, incredible dedication, and analytical thinking. He not only covers a wide range of current topics, but also writes excellent reviews, PR articles, and educational materials. His articles are also quoted by other news agencies.