On Thursday, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Paul Atkins, announced the long-awaited Crypto Project. It is a set of guidelines aimed at facilitating the development and expansion of financial innovation in the United States. The presentation of this proposal marks the agency's most explicit endorsement of cryptocurrencies to date.
The Commission's cryptocurrency project comes to light just one day after the comprehensive White House report on the sector. The 166-page report from Trump's cryptocurrency advisory team, led by Bo Hines, outlined the general guidelines.
From there, the SEC's cryptocurrency working group developed the agency-specific policies and regulations for the sector. The report marks a definitive step that distances securities regulators from the repressive stance of the previous government, led by Gary Gensler. At this point, Atkins was emphatic in focusing on the goal of transforming the U.S. into the "world capital of cryptocurrencies."
"Under my leadership, the Commission will empower the builders of our country instead of hindering them with bureaucracy and one-size-fits-all rules," he said. He emphasized that the mission of the Crypto Project is to facilitate innovation by promoting important initiatives like tokenization. He also stressed that efforts will be made to pave the way for exchanges to seek to become superapps.
The SEC's Crypto Project materializes Trump's promises
In his speech, quoted by Fortune, Paul Atkins detailed the main tasks that the agency now faces for its staff. Among them is encouraging the return of cryptocurrency companies that left during the Gensler era to the U.S. As mentioned earlier, during that repressive period for the cryptocurrency sector, companies and also talent left the industry to avoid the criminalization of developers.
Stake
Another immediate task outlined by the official is the modernization of custody service requirements. The latter focuses on companies wishing to hold digital assets. The third main task is to facilitate the experimentation of new types of on-chain solutions by companies.
Regarding the latter, he emphasized solutions such as the tokenization of securities. While everything seems clear in terms of regulation for the cryptocurrency sector, the sectors led by Atkins face some challenges. For example, establishing their own rules at a time when Congress seeks to create a broad framework to deal with these assets.
In any case, the SEC's Crypto Project is already underway and is preparing to stimulate the development of the crypto world. Despite the agency's favorable approach to cryptocurrencies, some companies are beginning to express concern about the constant delays in the approvals of spot altcoin ETFs. Some of these products are expected to be formalized by the end of the year.