SEC Plans Vote on New Crypto Investment Contract Rules as CLARITY Act Stalls

Even if the SEC approves the proposal, final rules could take 12-18 months after comments, revisions and another agency vote.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Monday it will hold an open meeting this Friday, August 14, to consider proposing new rules that would create a tailored offering path for certain crypto investment contracts.

The announcement lands just days after the Senate pushed its next procedural vote on the CLARITY Act to mid-September, leaving federal regulators to press ahead on their own while lawmakers work out what’s left of the bill’s disputes.

What the SEC Is Weighing

Friday’s vote only decides whether the agency issues a proposal, not whether it becomes law. Attorney Anne Kelley pointed out that a formal proposal would still need to clear a public comment period, economic analysis, possible revisions, and a separate final vote, a process that has typically taken major SEC rules somewhere between twelve and eighteen months from start to finish.

Still, she called it “welcome progress,” noting the agency is choosing to act rather than sit and wait on Congress.

In March, the SEC and CFTC issued a joint interpretation that set out a five-category token taxonomy and defined when a crypto investment contract begins and ends.

And while the meeting notice did not mention the interpretation, crypto investor Mark Chadwick believes it will eventually lead to rules that would let projects sell tokens to buyers expecting profit from the team’s work without going through the full weight of IPO-style registration.