SEC Drops 2026 Crypto Rule Salad While Congress Argues Over the Dressing 🥗

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has placed three proposed crypto-related rule changes on its 2026 regulatory agenda, a move SEC Chair Paul Atkins said is intended to "help clarify the regulatory framework for crypto assets and provide greater certainty to the market." The agenda, outlined in the Agency Rule List, addresses the offer and sale of crypto assets, broker-dealer financial responsibilities tied to crypto, and amendments to Exchange Act Rules covering digital-asset trading on alternative trading systems and national securities exchanges.

In explanatory text accompanying the proposal on the offer and sale of crypto assets, the SEC wrote that "the proposed rules may provide greater certainty to the market, facilitate capital formation, and accommodate innovation within the crypto asset markets while, at the same time, ensuring that investors are adequately protected and provided with the information they need to make informed investment decisions." The Commission stated the framework could include certain exemptions and safe harbors, with details to be subject to public comment.

The push to formalize crypto oversight comes as Congress debates a market-structure bill, commonly referred to as the CLARITY Act, that is expected to shift significant oversight and enforcement authority from the SEC to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In March, Atkins said the SEC would advance an internal "bridge" to clarify crypto regulation but would defer to legislation if Congress passed a bill. The agenda's stated alignment with the Trump administration's policy goals includes clarification on tokenized securities and capital raising with digital assets.

The SEC's current approach has drawn criticism from Democratic lawmakers. In a January letter to Atkins, three Democratic House members wrote that "the SEC's decision to let those who violated the securities laws go without consequences, together with recent statements by Chair Atkins that 'most crypto tokens are not securities,' despite holdings by federal district courts that at least some tokens are securities, has left a vacuum whereby securities violations by crypto firms are not enforced and US investors are not protected." A separate January letter accused the administration of a "pay-to-play scheme,"