US Securities and Exchange Commission chair Paul Atkins said during a keynote address on Wednesday that “most crypto tokens are not securities,” signaling a major policy shift for the agency.
Speaking at the OECD Roundtable, Atkins reiterated the SEC’s Project Crypto initiative — first launched in July — and sharpened its focus by pledging that most tokens will fall outside securities law and that entrepreneurs will be able to raise capital on-chain without “endless legal uncertainty.”
He argued that for too long, the SEC relied on ad hoc enforcement actions that drove innovation offshore, and pledged instead to offer predictable regulatory guidance for digital assets.
The statement seemingly breaks with years of SEC practice since the 2017 DAO Report, which applied the Howey test to many token sales, leading to enforcement actions against exchanges and issuers. Under Atkins, the agency will distinguish more clearly between securities and non-securities, giving entrepreneurs firmer ground when structuring tokenized projects.
He also endorsed a “super-app” platform model that would allow trading, lending, and staking under a single regulatory framework, aligning the SEC more closely with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regime.
Atkins’ comments follow the President’s Working Group report on digital asset markets, which urged agencies to accelerate rulemaking to keep the US competitive.
This is a developing story.
This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor Jeffrey Albus before publication.
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