SEC Crypto Regulation 2026: New Rules Reshape Digital Asset Markets

From Enforcement to Rulemaking

For most of Gensler's tenure, the SEC treated the bulk of digital tokens as unregistered securities, leading to high-profile actions against platforms including Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and Binance. Industry groups — the Blockchain Association and the Crypto Council for Innovation among them — argued that the lack of tailored registration forms made compliance effectively impossible, driving projects to relocate overseas.

That posture has changed markedly since Atkins was sworn in as SEC Chair in 2025. Rather than expanding enforcement against new entrants, the Commission has directed its staff toward:

• Drafting rules for crypto asset distribution, custody, and trading, developed with the SEC's Crypto Task Force led by Commissioner Hester Peirce
• Preserving market participants' choice of custodians and trading venues, including non-SEC-regulated and CFTC-registered platforms
• Building an "innovation exemption" allowing companies to test new models under principles-based safeguards instead of full existing-rule compliance

The August 2026 "Regulation Crypto Assets" proposal is the clearest expression of this shift to date — the first standalone offering framework built specifically for crypto, rather than forcing token issuers into disclosure rules written in the 1930s for stocks and bonds.

What's Still Unsettled

Atkins has been explicit that anti-fraud enforcement remains a statutory mandate, and the SEC says it will continue pursuing firms and individuals who violate securities law. The rulemaking is also not finalized: "Regulation Crypto Assets" is a proposal open to public comment, not an adopted rule, and the underlying question of which digital assets count as securities versus commodities still depends partly on pending market-structure legislation in Congress that would redraw the boundary between SEC and CFTC jurisdiction.

Sources

• SEC, "Statement on Regulation Crypto Assets: Fit-for-Purpose Exemptions for Crypto Market Innovation," Aug. 18, 2026
• Sidley Austin, "The Wait Is Over: SEC Proposes 'Regulation Crypto Assets,'" Aug. 2026
• Perkins Coie, "SEC Speaks 2026: Five Key Takeaways", Apr. 2026
• A&O Shearman, "SEC Chairman Atkins Announces 'Project Crypto'"