On May 12, the SEC held the third roundtable on crypto assets.
The Commission was attended by Chairman Paul Atkins.
He outlined the key priorities in the agency's work and promised to move away from the methods of the previous leadership.
On May 12, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held another roundtable, this time on the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA). The new head of the regulator, Paul Atkins, participated and outlined the key priorities for the agency's future work.
This is the third roundtable of four announced by the SEC in March 2025. The last one will take place on June 6 and will address the topic of DeFi. The first concerned trading, and the second—custodial services and the providers that offer them.
Paul Atkins, who attended the event, noted the importance of tokenization, as securities are increasingly moving into the on-chain space. The new SEC chairman compared this process to the evolution of music mediums, from vinyl records to cassettes and digital players.
Atkins also criticized the previous approach of the Commission to regulate this entire area, promising to move away from it.
"This is a new day at the SEC. Policy will no longer be the result of special enforcement actions. Instead, the Commission will use its existing powers of legislation, interpretation, and seizures to establish appropriate standards for market participants that are aimed at their intended purpose."
As for the key priorities in the work, according to Atkins, they include developing a rational regulatory framework for this area. At the same time, the head of the Commission separately highlighted three areas in the regulator's legislative activity—issuance, custody, and trading.
In the first case, the SEC must clearly define which crypto assets fall into the category of securities, he noted. Atkins also hinted at the possibility of revising the rules regarding the provision of custodial services and broker-dealers who want to offer a wider range of products, not just securities.
