Atkins Vows More Crypto Rule Changes to Keep Markets Onshore

SEC Chair Stresses More Crypto Regulation Is Coming

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will continue focusing its regulatory action on cryptocurrency and digital securities.

On October 2, SEC Chair Paul Atkins issued a statement on social media referring to a proposal to modernize regulation for crypto asset custody and referred to the relevance of the industry for the future of the U.S. as a leader in financial markets.

Atkins stressed these new rules would modernize custody rules put in place in 1940 and only contemplated the custody and safekeeping of traditional assets, which did not fit well in today’s digital landscape.

Atkins highlighted that this regulatory initiative was not isolated, but another element of a comprehensive crypto asset regulatory approach that the commission had been applying to the crypto industry since 2025, when it closed the era of crypto regulation by enforcement as former Chair Gary Gensler left the institution.

Before this crypto custody framework, the SEC presented two landmark regulatory initiatives for the crypto industry: Regulation Crypto Assets, which creates a tailored offering regime for crypto assets as investment contracts, and the Innovation Exemption, which establishes a 5-year sandbox to allow the trading of national stocks in decentralized exchanges and liquidity providers.

“These efforts acknowledge that blockchain technology holds the potential to modernize the financial system, and that onchain markets should not be relegated offshore or forced into ill-fitting regulatory models,” Atkins declared.

Nonetheless, this approach has contenders. John Reed Stark, former Chief at the SEC Office of Internet Enforcement, has argued that this regulatory push exceeds the agency’s authority, runs counter to over a decade of enforcement on crypto assets, and usurps Congress’s authority.

Even so, Atkins vowed to push on, highlighting that the agency’s work in the crypto field has not finished. “More regulatory proposals are on the horizon, and I look forward to continuing to help President Trump cement the United States as the crypto capital of the world,” he concluded.