The SEC says it will introduce its long-awaited crypto rulemaking as soon as this month. An updated regulatory agenda has the proposal penciled in for a July release, followed by a public comment period.
This is the clearest signal yet that “Regulation Crypto” is finally arriving. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has been teasing it for months — he initially said it would come in January, then walked that back. Now it’s actually on the calendar.
The rules would govern the offer and sale of crypto assets and include “certain exemptions and safe harbors” for specific types of on-chain activity. That means crypto companies would get a guarantee that activity in areas like tokenized securities and DeFi won’t trigger SEC enforcement.
Atkins has previously outlined a safe harbor that could apply to startups worth up to $5 million experimenting with crypto in their first four years; entrepreneurs raising up to $75 million via investment contracts involving crypto; and certain crypto assets once their creators have stopped all essential managerial efforts.
The timing is delicate. Congress’s Clarity Act — the sweeping bill that would legalize most crypto activity in the US — faces a make-or-break window in the Senate. Stakeholders agree that if it doesn’t pass by August, the November midterms will probably kill it for the year. Atkins has said the Clarity Act’s uncertain status impacted the SEC’s rollout timing.
“To deliver on President Trump’s goal to ensure that the United States is the crypto capital of the world, we are embracing innovation,” Atkins said in a statement. The question is whether the SEC’s rulemaking and Congress’s legislation can actually work together — or if they’ll end up pulling in different directions.
