The SEC Just Gave Crypto Companies A New Way To Raise Money

The SEC has proposed its first major set of crypto-specific securities rules under President Donald Trump, offering token issuers exemptions that could let them raise as much as $75 million in a 12-month period without going through the traditional securities-registration process. The proposal also creates a safe harbor that could prevent qualifying crypto assets from being treated as investment contracts at all. 

SEC Chair Paul Atkins has spent much of his tenure arguing that digital assets need rules designed around how they actually function rather than an enforcement regime built by applying existing securities law after the fact. His proposal begins putting that philosophy into regulation, providing defined routes for entrepreneurs to sell tokens while still requiring financial statements, disclosures and continuing reports.

One exemption would allow crypto companies to issue up to $5 million in tokens during a four-year period. A separate exemption would permit offerings of as much as $75 million every 12 months, creating a potentially meaningful capital-raising channel for companies that previously had to decide whether issuing a token might trigger the full machinery of federal securities registration.