- New SEC Chair Paul Atkins urged congressional action to support crypto regulation, stating that clear statutory support would help address regulatory ambiguity that stifles innovation.
- Speaking at a Washington roundtable, Atkins highlighted the need to modernise custody rules and create a transparent framework for blockchain-based financial systems.
- His comments coincide with ongoing debates over the FIT21 bill, which would split digital asset oversight between the CFTC and the SEC.
The newly appointed SEC Chair, Paul Atkins, stated that he would welcome congressional action to clarify the regulatory framework for digital assets.
Speaking at a public roundtable at the SEC’s headquarters in Washington, Atkins stated:
It’s always good to have Congress’s input; if there’s a statute to back up what we’re doing, I think that’s all the better.
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Market Innovation For Efficiency
During Friday’s roundtable, discussions centered on the challenges crypto custodians face under current securities laws. Atkins questioned whether updates to custody rules under the Exchange Act, Advisors Act, or Investment Company Act are necessary to account for crypto assets and blockchain systems properly.
Atkins, now serving his third term at the SEC, said entrepreneurs using blockchain to modernise the financial sector “deserve clear regulatory rules”, and stressed that regulatory ambiguity must be addressed:
I expect huge benefits from this market innovation for efficiency, cost reduction, transparency, and risk mitigation. Market participants engaging with this technology deserve clear regulatory rules of the road. Innovation has been stifled for the last several years due to market and regulatory uncertainty that unfortunately the SEC has fostered
Paul Atkins, SEC ChairAtkins was sworn in as SEC Chair earlier this week after being confirmed by the Senate. During his swearing-in, he outlined priorities focused on fostering capital formation, market efficiency, and investor protection, while establishing a clear and transparent framework for digital assets.
The new Chair also congratulated and thanked Commissioner Pierce for her “principled and tireless advocacy for common-sense crypto policy within the United States”, according to remarks published on the SEC’s official website.
Deliberations on Whether SEC or CFTC Best Suited to Regulate Crypto Industry
His comments come as lawmakers continue to debate the structure of a significant market bill that could determine whether the SEC or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will serve as the primary regulator for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.
This bill is the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), which aims to establish clear lines of authority between the two agencies when it comes to overseeing digital assets.
Primarily, the CFTC would gain more control over a new category called “digital commodities”, and the SEC would focus on “restricted digital assets”, which are essentially those that are either not decentralised or not operating on functional blockchain systems.
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