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SEC Chair Promises ‘New Day’ For Crypto Assets at Blockchain Symposium

By  |  August 20, 2025

Securities and Exchange Commission chair Paul Atkins is doubling down on “Project Crypto” as the agency seeks to overhaul the regulation of digital assets in the U.S. Speaking at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole Tuesday, Atkins announced the launch of the President’s Digital Asset Group to follow up on the recommendations of the President’s Digital Assets Working Group issued last month.

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    Atkins launched the Project Crypto initiative in July in a bid to attract crypto businesses to the U.S. with the promise of relaxed regulation.

    Atkins said the new group’s first task will be to create new rules for digital assets that balance protection of investors with allowing space for innovation.

    “It’s a new day,” he told the gathering according to Decrypt. “I feel your pain.”

    That new day will see a much more accommodating approach toward crypto assets than under previous SEC leadership, Atkins vowed. “There are very few tokens in my mind that are securities,” that would warrant registration with the agency, he said. “But it depends on what’s the package around it.”

    Related: Crypto Firm Tether Names ex-White House Official Bo Hines As Adviser

    Per Cryptopolitan, Atkins said the SEC will provide tailored exemptions, safe harbors, and new types of disclosure rules for crypto companies in place of the one-size-fits-all regulations of the past. Many activities, such as initial coin offerings, airdrops, network rewards, and development of decentralized apps, should be treated more flexibly to allow entrepreneurs to innovate.

    Crypto companies, VCs, and industry groups are already flooding Washington to lobby the SEC for exemptions for their projects to those they are backing.

    There is only so much the SEC can do to shape the digital asset sector without action by Congress, however. Atkins reiterated his support for the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, which is aimed at establishing a clear market and regulatory structure the digital assets. The bill was passed by the House in June. The Senate is expected to take up the bill when it returns from its August recess on September 3rd, but it is expected to face opposition from Democratic senators concerned with President Trump and his family’s extensive crypto dealings.

    According to a recent report in the New Yorker, the Trumps have earned an estimated $2.37 billion from its various crypto ventures during his two terms in the White House, with most of that coming during his current administration.

    Per Decrypt, Senate Banking Committee chair Tim Scott (R-SC) told the Jackson Hole gathering that by his current count, the bill has enough support to pass the committee, but he acknowledged that passage by the full Senate could come down to a handful of votes.