SEC Chair Atkins Walks Back Timeline for Crypto Innovation Exemptions

By Sander Lutz

SEC Chair Paul Atkins appeared to walk back a timeline for issuing sweeping crypto-related exemptions on Thursday, just days after Wall Street leaders met with agency officials to express concerns about the plan.

The exemptions would hand crypto companies a guarantee that activity in certain areas, such as tokenized securities and decentralized finance (or DeFi), would not trigger any enforcement action from the SEC.

Atkins said last month that he wanted the exemptions released in January, and felt his agency was able to move swiftly on the matter—despite holdups on crypto-related legislation currently pending in Congress, and even after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

But today, Atkins struck a different tune. When asked about the crypto exemptions and when they would be made final, Atkins declined to say they would be out by the end of this month, or even by next month.

“We’re still working on that, obviously,” Atkins said, speaking Thursday at a joint crypto-focused event with CFTC leadership. “We need to measure twice and cut once.”

Atkins further emphasized that the status of the crypto market structure bill, which is winding its way through the Senate—but not necessarily smoothly—could have an impact on timing for the exemptions.

“It would be nice to see direction from Congress,” Atkins said.

When asked by the moderator of today’s event, Eleanor Terrett of Crypto in America, whether Atkins now plans to wait for passage of the Senate’s crypto bill to roll out the innovation exemptions, the SEC chair said “not necessarily,” before adding: “There are a lot of moving parts to the situation.”

The shift in timeline comes days after Wall Street heavyweights including JPMorgan, Citadel, and securities trade group SIFMA met with the SEC’s crypto task force to express concerns about the impact sweeping crypto innovations could have on the broader economy. The groups appeared particularly worried about the impact of exemptions related to tokenized securities.

“Broad exemptions for tokenized trading activities could undermine investor protection and lead to market disruptions,” materials distributed at the meeting, prepared by SIFMA, read.

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