{ "jurisdiction_id": "US-DE", "jurisdiction": "United States – Delaware", "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/united-states-delaware/", "generator": "render_jid v13.3.0", "date_modified": "2026-08-17", "schema_version": "crypto-v2.0.0", "counts": { "modules": 7, "sourced_findings": 19, "source_register": 15 }, "modules": [ { "code": "crypto_licensing", "name": "Crypto Licensing", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/united-states-delaware/#crypto-licensing-crypto-licensing", "standing_position": "Delaware has no bespoke crypto-asset licensing statute. Virtual-currency exchange, custody and transmission businesses fall under Delaware's general money-transmitter licensing regime, administered by the Delaware Department of Banking/Financial Institutions via the multistate NMLS platform, because the state has not enacted a dedicated digital-asset licence distinct from money transmission. Two bills filed in March 2026 (SB19 'Delaware Payment Stablecoin Act' and SB16 'Delaware Banking Modernization Act of 2026'), plus an anticipated 'Delaware Money Transmission & Virtual Currency Modernization Act', would create a purpose-built licensing track for stablecoin issuers/digital-asset service providers and update the four-decade-old banking code, but none of these bills had been enacted as of dispatch date.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "token_classification", "name": "Token Classification", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/united-states-delaware/#token-classification-token-classification", "standing_position": "Delaware has no state-level token-classification taxonomy. Whether a given crypto-asset is a security, commodity, or other instrument is determined at the federal level (SEC/CFTC), not by Delaware statute, per the disambiguation directive for this JID. Federal developments materially shape the practical classification landscape: the GENIUS Act confirms payment stablecoins are not securities, and a March 2026 joint SEC/CFTC interpretive release classified bitcoin as a 'digital commodity' rather than a security.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "on_chain_activity_regime", "name": "On-Chain Activity Regime", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/united-states-delaware/#on-chain-activity-regime-on-chain-activity-regime", "standing_position": "Delaware has no dedicated statute addressing on-chain activities such as staking, DeFi lending, DEX operation, mining, node operation/validation, or tokenization. Absent state-specific carve-outs, the only applicable baseline for mining/self-directed activity is the federal FinCEN 'user' exemption framework, under which a person mining virtual currency solely for their own purposes is not a money transmitter. Staking, DeFi lending, DEX, node operation/validator activity and tokenization have no confirmed Delaware-specific or directly-applicable federal licensing treatment identified in this research pass.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "stablecoin_regime", "name": "Stablecoin Regime", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/united-states-delaware/#stablecoin-regime-stablecoin-regime", "standing_position": "Stablecoin regulation for this JID is currently driven almost entirely at the federal level. The GENIUS Act (signed July 18, 2025) is the first comprehensive federal payment-stablecoin statute, establishing issuance authorization pathways (OCC/Fed/FDIC/NCUA for federal issuers; certified 'substantially similar' state regimes for state-qualified issuers), reserve, redemption and disclosure requirements — but implementing regulations remain proposals as of mid-2026, and the agencies missed the Act's own July 18, 2026 rulemaking deadline. At the state level, Delaware's SB19 (pending, not enacted) would create a parallel state licensing regime for payment-stablecoin issuers and digital-asset service providers, adopting GENIUS Act definitions and layering reserve, capital, redemption-timing, AML and data-privacy requirements, with a federal-to-state charter conversion pathway.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "consumer_protection", "name": "Consumer Protection", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/united-states-delaware/#consumer-protection-consumer-protection", "standing_position": "Delaware has no crypto-specific consumer-protection statute. General money-transmitter licensee obligations (bonding, financial-responsibility, examination) apply by extension to virtual-currency businesses licensed under the general MTL regime. SB16 (pending) would, for the first time since 1981, update Delaware's banking code to authorize state-chartered banks and trust companies to hold and administer digital assets in a fiduciary capacity — implicitly introducing custody/segregation standards for digital assets that are not currently codified.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "tax_treatment", "name": "Tax Treatment", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/united-states-delaware/#tax-treatment-tax-treatment", "standing_position": "No Delaware Division of Revenue guidance specific to virtual-currency tax treatment was identified in this research pass. Federal IRS treatment (crypto-assets as property, taxable gain/loss on disposition, a November 2025 grantor-trust staking safe harbor, and phased-in broker 1099 reporting effective for 2025/2026 transactions) forms the presumed baseline that Delaware's state income tax, which generally conforms to federal adjusted gross income, would inherit, but this state-level conformity was not independently confirmed by a Delaware-specific primary source.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] }, { "code": "cross_border_transfer", "name": "Cross-Border Transfer", "confidence": null, "moved_this_cycle": false, "url": "https://cryptoassets.gi/jurisdictions/united-states-delaware/#cross-border-transfer-cross-border-transfer", "standing_position": "Delaware has no state-specific cross-border crypto-transfer restriction. The applicable baseline is the federal FinCEN Funds Travel Rule and OFAC sanctions-screening regime, which apply uniformly to Delaware-licensed money transmitters (including virtual-currency businesses) regardless of state licensing status, per the seed's disambiguation that federal AML/sanctions rules govern independently of state MTL licensing.", "findings": [ { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null }, { "finding": null, "instrument_type": null, "source": null, "source_url": null, "source_tier": null, "retrieved_at": null } ] } ] }