SEC chair Atkins prioritizes innovation in crypto rulemaking

Enforcement and crackdowns have long characterized the ￰0￱ and Exchange Commission’s ( SEC ) stance on cryptocurrencies and other digital ￰1￱ years of standoffs, its new willingness to engage with the crypto industry could mark the start of a genuine experiment in regulatory ￰2￱ Chair Paul Atkins designated crypto and tokenization as the agency’s “job one” priority, marking a move toward a pro-innovation ￰3￱ agency’s previous chair, Gary Gensler, wielded enforcement as his primary ￰4￱ Atkins, however, the agency seems to be asking a different question: how to let innovation thrive while maintaining oversight. Gensler-led SEC: Enforcement as policy Gensler treated most cryptocurrencies as “securities” and centered his crypto regulation strategy on aggressive enforcement and ￰5￱ Gensler’s tenure, the SEC filed over 125 crypto-related enforcement actions and obtained a total monetary settlement, according to the ￰6￱ 64% were non-fraudulent actions alleging unregistered securities offering violations, and 37% were unanimously approved by the ￰7￱ late 2020 and 2024, the SEC filed a string of lawsuits against several high-profile crypto firms, including Ripple (December 2020), Bittrex (April 2023), Coinbase (June 2023), Binance (June 2023), and Kraken (November 2023), alleging violations such as unregistered securities offerings and operating unlicensed exchanges.

Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, criticized Gensler “ prejudged crypto ,” pursuing lawsuits against crypto firms “without investigation,” stifling the industry’s growth in the ￰8￱ enforcement-heavy environment in the ￰9￱ some crypto businesses to exit the ￰10￱ firms, despite being registered with the SEC, struggled to stay afloat under the strict regulations. Atkins-led SEC: Innovation as strategy Following Gensler’s departure in January 2025 and before Atkins’ arrival, Acting Chairman Mark ￰11￱ announced the creation of the Crypto Task Force, which is led by Commissioner Hester ￰12￱ task force’s goal was to take a balanced approach to the cryptocurrency and digital asset sector rather than prioritizing only enforcement.

A significant policy shift occurred in January 2025 when the SEC rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) ￰13￱ eased barriers for financial institutions offering crypto custodial ￰14￱ taking office in April 2025, Atkins has led the SEC to begin withdrawing or pausing select crypto ￰15￱ July 2025, the agency launched Project Crypto to “modernize the securities rules and regulations” and enable ￰16￱ markets to operate ￰17￱ DC Fintech Week on October 15, the pro-crypto SEC chair emphasized the objective of building a future-proof crypto framework “to actually attract people back into the United States who may have fled.” By jokingly dubbing the SEC a “Securities and Innovation Commission” at the Forum, he signaled the agency’s innovation-friendly agenda.

Ultimately, the SEC, led by Atkins, plans to initiate rulemaking around its “innovation exemption” vision by the end of 2025 or early 2026, depending on the status of the ongoing ￰18￱ shutdown .