The SEC’s 2026 Regulatory Agenda floats three new crypto rules, and none of them come with a fine attached. Chairman Paul Atkins wants that to be the point.
One rule, titled “Crypto Assets,” would carve out exemptions and safe harbors for token sales, aiming to give the market greater certainty and facilitate capital formation. A second amends broker-dealer financial responsibility rules to cover firms holding digital assets in custody. A third, “Crypto Market Structure Amendments,” extends Exchange Act rules to crypto trading on alternative trading systems and national exchanges, providing clearer rules for issuance, custody and trading.
Atkins framed the package as delivering on President Trump’s goal to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the world.”
Atkins has been building toward this. The agency flagged the “Crypto Assets” rulemaking back in April as a startup-fundraising exemption tied to the Securities Act of 1933. July’s agenda turns that trial balloon into three formal dockets, the kind of sequencing that says Atkins isn’t waiting on Congress to act first.
He’s also pushed Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, the market-structure bill Atkins says the agency still needs even as it writes its own rules.
The filing date is the number to watch. If “Crypto Assets” lands as an actual proposal this year, exchanges currently routing volume offshore get a regulated path home. The ones that don’t adapt compete for a shrinking pool of unregulated liquidity.
— Marcus Webb