SEC Sends ‘Regulation Crypto’ Proposal to White House

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly ready to propose a “regulation crypto.”

That’s according to a report Monday (April 6) from Coindesk, which says the SEC is working on its approach to regulating the cryptocurrency sector and delineating between transactions that could be securities and ones that aren’t.

Giving a talk in Nashville, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the commission’s new reg crypto has been sent to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, meaning it’s on the cusp of being published, the report said.

This rulemaking is focused on the Securities Act of 1933 and is concerned with fundraising and startup exemptions, the report added. Speaking to CoinDesk, Atkins said the SEC also plans to soon release its long-awaited innovation exemption.

“We’d love to have reactions and everything else,” he said. “It’s not a rule as such but obviously we need to know how it’s functioning and if people have problems with it or not.”

Atkins added that the exemption is designed in a way that it would be fair to both startups and incumbents, saying the SEC wants “people really to experiment within [that] framework.”

Throughout his talk, Atkins noted the role of Congress, saying the SEC’s rulemaking process would proceed regardless of what lawmakers might do.

“I think we have enough of a runway now, even notwithstanding what may happen in the midterms—although I really still want a friendly Congress obviously—they can throw tacks on the road in front of our tires but they’re not going to really slow us down.”

Atkins’ comments came the same day that U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) said that the cryptocurrency-focused CLARITY Act could be advanced by the Senate Banking Committee and go before the full Senate before the end of the month.

In a speech at the Vanderbilt University Digital Assets and Emerging Tech Policy Summit, the Tennessee Republican said the bill’s proponents could bring it before the committee during the work period that starts April 13 before passing it along to the full Senate.

“There’re several issues still outstanding, I think none of them are insurmountable, and we will get to a point I believe in April that we’ll have it out of the banking committee,” Hagerty said, according to a report from Cointelegraph. “There’s still a lot more work to do.”

Work on the bill stalled earlier this year amid a disagreement between the banking and crypto sectors about whether crypto exchanges should be allowed pay yield to stablecoin holders through rewards programs.