Three Crypto Rules Land on SEC’s 2026 Regulatory Agenda

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has placed three crypto-related rule changes on its 2026 Regulatory Agenda, putting the agency at the center of decisions about how digital assets are sold, brokered, and traded in the United States. The agenda lands while the Senate keeps delaying a comprehensive crypto bill called the CLARITY Act. For any crypto firm planning a launch this year, the practical rule-making authority now sits inside the SEC.

In a statement released July 7, 2026, SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins tied the package to President Trump’s stated goal of making the United States the “crypto capital of the world” and called the agenda the “robust rulemaking we are pursuing.” The three crypto items appear on the SEC’s 2026 Agency Rule List alongside roughly forty other rulemakings on topics from climate disclosure to proxy advisors. None of the three directly draw the line between securities and non-securities crypto that Congress has been trying to draw for two years running. In Chair Atkins’s July 7 statement on the 2026 Regulatory Agenda, the package is presented as a way to bring more products onshore, with new rules of the road for capital raising and clearer custody rules. The agenda thus marks neither a victory nor a defeat for crypto; it only shifts the rule-writing job from Capitol Hill to the SEC.

What Atkins Just Put on the Agenda

The release is the second major regulatory agenda of the Atkins era and the first to span a full calendar year of his chairmanship. Atkins framed the agenda as the “robust rulemaking we are pursuing under my chairmanship,” with crypto as the single most visible sub-area. Each of the three items is filed at the proposed rule stage under its own Regulation Identifier Number, sitting on the agency’s active rulemaking docket. They are the only entries that map directly onto digital-asset market structure.

The first item, RIN 3235-AN38 and titled simply “Crypto Assets,” sits in the Division of Corporation Finance. Its scope covers rules on the offer and sale of crypto assets and may include exemptions and safe harbors designed to clarify how issuers can bring tokens to market without crossing into full securities registration. The agency says the move is meant, in its own words, to “provide greater certainty to the market.”

The second and third items sit in the Division of Trading and Markets. RIN 3235-AN48, “Amendments to Broker-Dealer Financial Responsibility and Recordkeeping and Reporting Rules Regarding Crypto Assets,” would update Exchange Act rules 15c3-1, 15c3-3, 17a-3, and 17a-4 to cover digital assets for the first time. RIN 3235-AN49, “Crypto Market Structure Amendments,” would amend Exchange Act rules to address the trading of crypto assets on alternative trading systems and national securities exchanges. The two Trading and Markets rules cover broker-dealer obligations from net capital to customer protection and recordkeeping, then turn to where tokens can actually be listed. Together, the three items map the full lifecycle of a crypto asset under U.S. securities law, from issuance to custody to trading venue.

Why Each Rule Hits a Real Pain Point

The Crypto Assets rule answers a confusion that has shaped the past decade. Issuers have not known how to bring a token to market without inadvertently running into full securities registration. The proposed rule would, in the agency’s words, help “clarify the regulatory framework for crypto assets and provide greater certainty to the market.”

The broker-dealer rule, RIN 3235-AN48, addresses a more concrete question. Registered broker-dealers have not known whether they can hold customer crypto at all under the existing customer-protection rule, or how to apply net-capital haircuts to digital assets whose prices can move ten percent in a day. The update would extend the SEC’s Exchange Act financial-responsibility framework to digital assets that broker-dealers custody or carry. The law firm Thompson Hine, tracking the agenda, lists the four affected areas as net capital, customer protection, recordkeeping, and transfer-agent rules.

The market structure rule, RIN 3235-AN49, addresses a still more basic gap. There is currently no Exchange Act playbook for an ATS or registered national exchange that wants to list a non-security crypto asset alongside a security token. As Atkins put it in Atkins’s keynote at the Reagan National Economic Forum, “jurisdictional ambiguity can stifle innovation just as surely as ill-devised regulation, and for too long, it has.” That ambiguity has shaped the SEC’s stance since the Gensler years. The market-structure rule is the SEC’s attempt to write its end of the deal before Congress writes its own.

• Three rulemakings active at the proposed rule stage
• Two divisions of the SEC involved: Corporation Finance and Trading and Markets
• Four Exchange Act rules on the table for updating: 15c3-1, 15c3-3, 17a-3, and 17a-4

Inside Project Crypto, the “New Day” Frame

The agenda is the formal output of a broader initiative Atkins calls Project Crypto. The agency first launched the program in 2025 and Atkins has publicly described it as the SEC’s “north star” in helping the U.S. become the “crypto capital of the world.” Project Crypto now spans a token taxonomy interpretation, an innovation exemption for tokenized U.S. equities, and the three rulemakings on this agenda. A written-rules posture has replaced enforcement-by-suit as the default for crypto at the agency.

The shift is visible in the language used by staff across the agency. The same division that brought heavy-handed enforcement actions during the Gensler years is now publishing safe harbors, staff FAQs, and the framework for an “innovation exemption” as its primary tools. Atkins previewed that exemption in 2026 speeches, calling it “a forthcoming innovation exemption for tokenized listed securities” and tying it to clarifying how onchain trading systems fit within existing rules. The exemptive framework is meant to let qualifying firms trade tokenized U.S. equities on blockchain rails without full SEC registration. Internally, the SEC is also leaning on a thinner workforce to deliver the package. Atkins has signalled that the SEC will hire “special government employees” to facilitate rulemaking even as headcount has fallen. The pull-quote from his July 7 statement captures the rest of the agency’s framing.

To deliver on President Trump’s goal to ensure that the United States is the crypto capital of the world, we are embracing innovation to bring more products onshore, creating clear rules of the road for capital raising with crypto assets, and providing clarity as to how market participants can custody and facilitate trading of tokenized securities onchain.

The statement is from Paul S. Atkins, Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, released on July 7, 2026.

The Clock Is Already Slipping

All three rulemakings were originally targeted for April 1, 2026 under the Spring 2025 agenda published in September. The 2026 Agency Rule List still lists each as at the proposed rule stage.

Ropes & Gray, the law firm tracking the SEC’s agenda, flagged that risk last September. Their note on the agenda said the April 1, 2026 target date still appeared in the rule list and warned that “in some instances, that date is likely to slip.” That warning now matches the calendar, six months on.

The slippage matters because Atkins is doing the job with fewer people. EY’s Public Policy team reported that the SEC workforce has shrunk by around 15 percent since the start of the second Trump administration. To compensate, Atkins has signalled that the SEC will hire “special government employees” to facilitate rulemaking. The new hires would fill gaps left by attrition and the broader federal workforce reductions. Yet the agency is also running on parallel tracks, with the Division of Corporation Finance and the Division of Trading and Markets both feeding the agenda.

The absence of final rules does not freeze the market. The agency has continued to publish interim guidance, FAQ documents, and individual exemptive letters over the past year. Atkins’s Project Crypto Initiative is the public-facing brand for all of it, with the 2026 agenda serving as its formal output.

• ~40 rulemakings on the SEC’s 2026 Regulatory Agenda
• ~15% SEC workforce reduction reported by EY’s Public Policy team since the start of the second Trump administration
• April 1, 2026 original SEC target date for all three crypto rulemakings

Why Congress, Not the SEC, Was Supposed to Do This

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act passed the U.S. House in July 2025 with broad bipartisan support. It would have drawn a hard line between securities and non-securities crypto, a line the SEC’s three rulemakings can soften but not replace. The Senate has stalled the bill twice, leaving crypto firms to read the SEC’s agenda while waiting for the statute that would settle the basic question.

Atkins’s plan B is to write the rules through the SEC’s existing Exchange Act authority while Congress works on its statutory definitions. The safe-harbor proposal Atkins sketched in Atkins’s March 17 Regulation Crypto Assets speech “would draw heavily from Congressional work over recent years, particularly the CLARITY Act.” That means a token that looks like a commodity can end up governed by broker-dealer rules shaped by SEC staff. The practical stakes for any firm planning a 2026 launch are visible in the Senate’s August 7 deadline that gates the CLARITY Act, paired with a recent Trump post and the bill’s slip on prediction markets. For now, the agency writes the rules; the statute, if it lands, will reset them later.

What Comes Next for Crypto Firms

The most concrete near-term action is the innovation exemption for tokenized U.S. equities. The carve-out would let qualifying firms trade tokenized versions of listed stocks on blockchain rails without full SEC registration. Atkins has previewed the exemption in 2026 speeches and tied it to clarifying how onchain trading systems fit within existing regulations. The exemption is not yet on the agenda list itself, but staff are drafting it alongside the three rulemakings.

For broker-dealers and ATSs that already handle crypto, the agenda raises the prospect of net-capital and customer-protection rules written specifically for digital assets. The current patchwork stretches equity-era rules over crypto positions that can swing ten percent in a single session. The proposed rule would replace that stretch with rules designed for the asset class.

For issuers, the proposed Crypto Assets rule will eventually spell out which token sales qualify for safe-harbor treatment and which do not. Atkins’s March 17 sketch proposed a startup exemption for investment contracts involving crypto, capped at $5 million over four years, plus a fundraising exemption capped at $75 million over any 12-month period. Those numbers were Atkins’s own illustrative figures, not a draft rule, and they signal where the agency is likely to set thresholds. None of it is yet binding; it is the chair’s preview of what a draft rule could contain. Until any of it lands, the market runs on interim guidance, exemptive letters, and the agency’s FAQs, with the 2026 agenda replacing a single legislative answer with a sequence of regulator answers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the three crypto rules the SEC just put on its 2026 agenda?

The SEC placed three rulemakings on its 2026 Regulatory Agenda, each at the proposed rule stage and the only items that map directly onto digital-asset market structure. RIN 3235-AN38 covers rules for the offer and sale of crypto assets and could include exemptions and safe harbors. RIN 3235-AN48 updates Exchange Act rules 15c3-1, 15c3-3, 17a-3, and 17a-4 for broker-dealer custody of digital assets, while RIN 3235-AN49 amends Exchange Act rules to address trading on ATSs and national securities exchanges.

How does the SEC’s 2026 agenda differ from the CLARITY Act?

The CLARITY Act is the comprehensive bill Congress has been trying to pass for two years. The SEC’s three rulemakings operate within existing Exchange Act authority and can clarify custody, broker-dealer obligations, and trading venues without waiting on Capitol Hill. The CLARITY Act, when it passes, would pre-empt the SEC’s work; until then, the agenda is the agency’s plan B.

What is Project Crypto?

Project Crypto is an Atkins-led SEC initiative launched in 2025 to modernize securities rules for blockchain and digital assets. Atkins has called it the agency’s “north star” in helping the U.S. become the “crypto capital of the world.” The 2026 Regulatory Agenda is the formal output of Project Crypto for this calendar year.

Why is the SEC’s April 1, 2026 target date already slipping?

The 2026 Agency Rule List still lists each crypto rulemaking at the proposed rule stage with no final text published. Ropes & Gray, the law firm tracking the agenda, warned in September 2025 that “in some instances, that date is likely to slip.” EY’s Public Policy team also reported that the SEC workforce has shrunk by around 15 percent, and Atkins has signalled the SEC will hire “special government employees” to facilitate rulemaking. The combination of a thinner staff and a packed calendar suggests further slippage.

What is the innovation exemption for tokenized U.S. stocks?

The innovation exemption is a forthcoming SEC carve-out that would let qualified firms trade tokenized versions of listed U.S. equities on blockchain rails without full SEC registration. Atkins previewed the exemption in 2026 speeches, calling it “a forthcoming innovation exemption for tokenized listed securities.” The exemption is separate from the three rulemakings on the 2026 Regulatory Agenda but is being drafted alongside them.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice. Crypto assets carry substantial risk, including total loss of capital. The SEC rules described are proposed, not yet final, and may change before adoption or may never be adopted. Always consult a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions. Figures and quoted rules are accurate as of publication.