SEC Tells Crypto to Sit Tight: Rule Book Drops This Summer, Clarity Act Still Doing Sit-Ups 🤸

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has placed three proposed crypto rule changes on its 2026 regulatory agenda, with the agency signaling that its long-promised "Regulation Crypto" proposal could be unveiled as soon as July. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said Tuesday the agenda is designed to align with the Trump administration's policy goals on digital assets, including clarification on tokenized securities and capital raising with crypto assets. The updated agenda lists rules covering the offer and sale of crypto assets, broker-dealer financial responsibilities in relation to crypto assets, and amendments to Exchange Act Rules governing crypto trading on alternative trading systems and national securities exchanges.

According to the agenda, the SEC is weighing rules on the offer and sale of crypto assets that could include certain exemptions and safe harbors. "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 said. The agenda marks the clearest indication yet that the SEC is preparing to formally unveil its Regulation Crypto proposal, which Atkins initially said would be rolled out in January. In March, Atkins outlined that a potential safe harbor could apply to startups worth up to $5 million seeking to experiment with crypto assets in their first four years, to entrepreneurs raising up to $75 million via investment contracts involving certain crypto assets, and to certain crypto assets once their creators have ceased all essential managerial efforts.

Atkins framed the effort in a statement tied to President Donald Trump's stated objective for the United States to become "the crypto capital of the world." "We are embracing innovation to bring more products onshore, creating clear rules of the road for capital raising with crypto assets, and providing clarity as to how market participants can custody and facilitate trading of tokenized securities onchain," Atkins said. The rule's release would be followed by a public comment period on the proposed policies. The agenda update came as the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned a landmark ruling forcing presidents to fire federal agency commissioners only in extraordinary circumstances, issuing a 6-3 decision that affirmed Trump's right to fire Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic FTC commissioner, and granting the executive branch greater authority over regulatory agencies including the SEC.

The SEC's push coincides with congressional debate over the CLARITY Act, a market structure bill expected to shift much of the oversight and enforcement of the industry from the SEC to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Stakeholders broadly agree that if the bill does not pass by August, it is unlikely to become law this year ahead of the November midterm elections. Atkins has previously said the uncertain status of the Clarity Act has impacted the SEC's rollout of its own crypto rules, and in March he said the agency would move forward with an internal "bridge" to clarify crypto regulation while signaling deference to legislation if it passed. Democratic lawmakers have criticized the approach, with three House members writing in a January letter 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."

The proposed framework arrives against a backdrop of growing institutional engagement with digital assets. Crypto ETF assets have exceeded $65 billion, and 73% of institutions now plan to increase crypto allocations, while 66% already access the market through regulated ETFs and ETPs, according to figures cited in industry analysis. Allocations remain below 0.5% of advised wealth according to Grayscale Research, indicating that institutions continue testing infrastructure