On May 13, new SEC Chair Paul Atkins announced on Monday that the agency would undergo significant changes in its approach to cryptocurrency regulation, outlining details related to issuance and custody. Nominated by President Trump, Atkins elaborated on these plans during the SEC's fourth cryptocurrency task force roundtable, demonstrating a starkly different approach to digital asset regulation compared to the previous administration. "A new day has arrived for the SEC," Atkins said. "Policy-making will no longer rely on ad-hoc enforcement actions. Instead, the Commission will leverage its existing rule-making, interpretative, and exemptive authority to set standards suitable for market participants." On Monday, Atkins stated that he plans to develop guidelines for assets considered securities or 'subject to investment contracts.' He criticized the previous approach by Gary Gensler, which required companies to visit the SEC, calling it a 'ostrich policy—perhaps hoping that cryptocurrency will disappear.' "It claims to be willing to talk to potential registrants, 'just come visit,' but that is at most empty talk, and more often hypocritical, as the SEC has not made the necessary adjustments to its registration forms for this new technology," he said. Atkins also hinted that custody rules may need updating to allow funds and advisors to engage in self-custody under certain conditions and revealed that the agency may take a new approach to its 'special purpose broker-dealer framework.' Atkins indicated that the SEC may also consider whether to offer exemption relief for participants looking to bring new products to market. "I want to explore whether there are conditional exemption reliefs applicable to registrants and non-registrants seeking to launch new products and services that may not be compatible with the current Commission rules and regulations," he said.
