Under SEC Chair Paul Atkins, the commission has reversed much of its previous approach to digital assets and outlined plans to revise capital-markets regulations to accommodate tokens and blockchain-based trading. The previous SEC leadership sued multiple crypto companies on the theory that their tokens were securities and that the companies had violated registration and disclosure requirements. Atkins has backed the industry’s argument that many tokens should instead be treated as commodities.
Atkins has also discussed several possible exemptions. One would create a safe harbor making it easier for companies to sell tokens and raise capital. Another “fit-for-purpose startup exemption” could permit cryptocurrency entrepreneurs to raise a specified amount or operate for a limited period without complying with some SEC requirements. The agency is separately developing an “innovation exemption” that could allow experimentation with business models such as blockchain-based stocks without all existing disclosure and investor-protection requirements.
The delay comes as the prospects for congressional action have also deteriorated. An analysis this week by Steptoe concluded that the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act faces “increasingly formidable obstacles” and that, although a limited path to passage remains in September, digital-asset companies could enter 2027 facing continued regulatory uncertainty. The legislation would broadly divide jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC, leaving investment-contract-like assets and capital raising under SEC oversight while assigning most crypto trading to the CFTC.
Steptoe identifies several unresolved disputes, including stablecoin-related rewards, anti-money-laundering treatment of decentralized finance and ethics restrictions involving public officials. The bill has also become increasingly entangled in broader political disputes surrounding cryptocurrency.
A cloture vote in the Senate is scheduled for Sept. 15, immediately after the Congress returns from its summer recess, but Steptoe assesses that supporters are unlikely to secure the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster. With relatively few legislative days remaining before the November midterm elections, failure in September could effectively close the bill’s 2026 window.
That makes the SEC’s postponed rulemaking more significant, not less. Without congressional legislation, Steptoe expects large portions of crypto policy to remain dependent on SEC and CFTC regulatory action, potentially exposing the resulting framework to court challenges and future changes in administration policy.
For now, both tracks have stalled: Congress has left Washington without resolving market-structure legislation, while the SEC has postponed its own attempt to start replacing enforcement-driven cryptocurrency policy with formal rules.
