SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency has “moved purposely” to support President Donald Trump’s goal to make the U.S. the “Crypto Capital of the World.”
‘Long-Called-For Uncertainty’ For Stakeholders
At a Tuesday speech at the Economic Club of New York, Atkins said that through Project Crypto—a joint regulatory initiative led by the SEC and the CFTC to modernize digital asset regulation—the agency has taken “historic steps” to modernize regulations for on-chain markets.
Atkins said that the regulator has delivered “long-called-for certainty” to issuers, adding that investors and entrepreneurs can now know in advance whether a digital asset is a security and therefore subject to SEC oversight.
“To be clear: this is not a favor to industry—it is what markets require to function: clear rules of the road, applied without preference,” the SEC Chair added.
A ‘Pro-Crypto’ Pivot
Atkins’ remarks were consistent with broader SEC efforts aimed at providing clarity in the cryptocurrency space.
In March, the SEC issued an interpretation clarifying that “most cryptocurrency assets,” including non-fungible tokens and dollar-backed stablecoins, aren’t securities.
The new guidance differed sharply from the Gary Gensler-led SEC, which viewed cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) as securities and treated them as "highly speculative, volatile assets" that most investors misunderstood.
Atkins had also hinted at an “innovation exemption,” which the SEC is now using to develop a framework for trading tokenized versions of popular Wall Street-listed stocks.
The administration has been supportive of cryptocurrency, with Trump describing the sector as a "big deal" that the U.S. must lead or risk ceding dominance to China.
One could argue that the support has gone too far. According to the latest financial disclosure, Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures netted him over $1 billion in the first year of his presidency.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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