The SEC said Tuesday it plans to introduce its long-awaited crypto rulemaking as soon as this month, bringing the agency a step closer to establishing a regulatory safe harbor for certain crypto-related activities in the United States.
The rules would govern the offer and sale of crypto assets, and also include "certain exemptions and safe harbors" for various types of on-chain financial activity.
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 enforcement action from the SEC.
"To deliver on President Trump's goal to ensure that the United States is the crypto capital of the world, we are embracing innovation to bring more products onshore, creating clear rules of the road for capital raising with crypto assets, and providing clarity as to how market participants can custody and facilitate trading of tokenized securities onchain," Atkins said Tuesday in a statement.
After over a year of starts and stops, the Clarity Act faces a do-or-die next few weeks in the Senate. Stakeholders broadly agree that if the bill does not pass by August, it is unlikely to become law this year, due to the looming November midterm elections.
