SEC targets July for first formal crypto rule under Atkins

US Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2026 Regulatory Agenda is scheduled to release its first crypto rule proposal in the month of July under the chairmanship of Paul Atkins. 

Known as Regulation Crypto, the rule would exempt early-stage crypto projects from securities registration for up to four years, permit capped fundraising, and establish a safe harbor for issuers stepping back from a token’s management.

The rule proposal is still pending before the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which is the reviewing entity within the Office of Management and Budget that approves regulations for publication.

SEC proposes four-year safe harbor for crypto startups

Atkins detailed the eligibility criteria in a speech on March 17 at the DC Blockchain Summit. Start-up companies would have a four-year period within which they could raise $5 million in one year until they matured as a network.

A separate fundraising exemption would let entrepreneurs raise up to $75 million through investment contracts tied to certain crypto assets. The investment contract safe harbor would trigger when an issuer completes their promised managerial efforts, at which point the token itself would no longer be treated as a security.

According to reports, the crowdfunding component of the bill corresponds to the 103rd section of the Senate’s CLARITY Act and would operate through the Securities Act of 1933, whereas the innovation exemption for DeFi purposes will be implemented under the 1934 Exchange Act.

Atkins races to turn crypto guidance into binding rules

Why the July deadline: Everything Atkins has achieved in the space so far can be undone – a future SEC could easily issue a single memo to nullify staff guidance, interpretive releases, and no-action letters. The only thing it couldn’t easily undo is a formal rule.

Once finalized in the Federal Register, there is no way to undo it except for going through another period of comments and another round of rule-making process that may take years. This is the difference between a policy that is reversible and a framework that is sustainable, and that is why Atkins stresses the urgency of the regulation proposed initially in March.

Two clocks are running against him. The first is Peirce. She leads the SEC Crypto Task Force, and her 2020 Token Safe Harbor is the intellectual foundation of Regulation Crypto. Peirce is leaving in November to teach at Regent University School of Law.

As Cryptopolitan earlier reported, her second term expired in June 2025, and she can remain in post only until a Senate-confirmed replacement arrives. If she exits office before the rulemaking process is complete, her replacement might hold up the rule, change it, or simply discard it.

The second is the political clock. This is because the Trump administration is now two years old and every policy that Atkins drafts as guidance but not a rule is bound to expire if the next administration decides to go in another direction.

Atkins said at an April digital assets summit that regulatory action needs to be durable enough that a future SEC cannot easily undo it. He is racing to publish before either clock runs out.

Congress remains the final test for Regulation Crypto

The CLARITY Act, dividing crypto regulation into SEC and CFTC jurisdictions, was passed in the House on July 17, 2025 and the Senate Banking Committee on a 15-9 vote on May 14, 2026. According to The Cryptonomist, for the bill to have any chance of becoming a law this year, it needs to pass before August 2026, a narrow window before the November midterms.

Not everyone wants the SEC to move by exemption. Citadel Securities has lobbied for a full notice-and-comment approach to rulemaking on the grounds that exemptions would make the markets less safe and reduce regulatory oversight.

In contrast, the Blockchain Association has contended that traditional rulemaking is unnecessary because the SEC has used exemptions previously. The SEC agenda also highlights separate initiatives related to crypto exchanges and broker-dealers’ regulation, as well as signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the CFTC to coordinate oversight.

Whether Regulation Crypto becomes durable policy depends on what Congress does before the midterms.

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