ContextSpeech by Paul S. Atkins, Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Why it mattersThe SEC Chair lays out the next steps of his crypto agenda, from token offerings to custody rules for funds.
- Crypto entrepreneurs lack regulatory certainty in the US.
- Market infrastructure such as transfer agents is outdated.
- Rules on crypto custody for funds and advisers are unclear.
- Finalise clear rules for token offerings.
- Modernise transfer agent rules for blockchain records.
- Propose a crypto custody framework for advisers and funds.
Read the speech summary
1. A race for crypto leadership
Addressing a Solana Policy Institute summit in Washington, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins framed the moment as a choice between building the future of finance in America or ceding it abroad. He presented the agency's Project Crypto as a rule-by-rule effort to make the country the world's crypto capital, and urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, adding that the administration will act with or without it.
2. Three proposals
First, the proposed Regulation Crypto Assets would let founders raise money using digital assets under clear securities rules; the main feedback asks when an investment contract ends once promised work is done. Second, transfer-agent rules left untouched for about forty years, written for paper certificates, are proposed for modernisation toward tokenised shares. Third, staff are drafting a proposal that would let advisers and regulated funds hold crypto, including self-custody where no qualified custodian exists and through state trust companies.
3. One architecture and a warning
Atkins presents these as three pillars of one framework covering the whole life of a digital asset: its creation, its trading, its transfer and its safekeeping. Citing a Jefferson line about institutions keeping pace with the times, he warned that failing to adapt would send blockchain finance's best advances overseas, and promised clarity while staying within the SEC's statutory mission.