Atkins vows clearer crypto rules at U.S. SEC

Atkins has tied the shift to a broader plan to modernize securities regulation for onchain markets. In a July 2025 speech announcing “Project Crypto,” he said the SEC would not “stand idly by” while innovation develops overseas and directed staff to develop proposals meant to move parts of US capital markets “from an off-chain environment to an on-chain one.”

The SEC’s new posture is built around rulemaking and public engagement rather than reliance on enforcement to define policy. Reuters previously reported Atkins criticizing prior practice as lacking predictability and due process, and outlining a more notice-driven approach to technical violations, alongside a rulemaking agenda that included revamping crypto oversight.

In more recent remarks, Atkins has emphasized practical market-structure questions that remain unresolved for tokenized assets, including how tokenized securities interact with existing regulation and how intermediaries can trade and custody them for clients. Speaking at a February 2026 event alongside Commissioner Hester Peirce, Atkins urged industry participants to work with the SEC on a framework that accommodates useful token attributes while maintaining regulatory objectives, adding that the process “will take time.” 

The chairman has also spotlighted tension between enforcement goals and financial privacy as stablecoins and onchain payments expand. In December 2025 remarks at an SEC Crypto Task Force roundtable on financial surveillance and privacy, Atkins framed the debate as whether Americans can participate in modern finance “without surrendering their privacy,” while noting the government’s parallel obligations to deter illicit finance through tools such as the Bank Secrecy Act.

Atkins’ broader argument is that the US should set domestic policy that keeps core activity onshore. In his Project Crypto speech, he said the SEC would “reshore the crypto businesses that fled” and criticized what he characterized as a prior “regulation-by-enforcement” posture.

For market participants, the immediate watch points are the pace of concrete proposals – especially on classification boundaries for crypto assets, trading and custody standards for tokenized securities, and how compliance expectations translate into day-to-day supervision – alongside whether the SEC’s notice-first enforcement posture materially changes how firms manage regulatory risk.