Regulation Crypto is also expected to release companies from the agency's jurisdiction once they stop running a project — and unlike the staff guidance the SEC has leaned on so far, a formal rule is hard to reverse.
The SEC said in a notice issued Monday night that its three commissioners, all Republicans, will meet Friday, August 14 to vote on releasing the proposal for public comment. That is unusually short notice for a rulemaking the regulator had been weighing for a while.
The measure would be the agency's first formal rule setting more durable terms for crypto businesses, laying out a route for issuing digital assets legally. Chair Paul Atkins has long treated this rulemaking as a central objective of his crypto agenda.
The step comes hard on the heels of the Senate's failure, a week earlier, to begin key votes on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the bill meant to supply a statutory basis for regulating crypto markets in the United States. TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg told clients, in a note written after the SEC's notice landed, that he reads it as the first of several rules the agency will write so crypto assets have a settled regulatory picture.
This first stage includes a public comment period, typically two or three months, followed by a rewrite that may drag on, and the rule will probably need several more months to reach final form. The Clarity Act, meanwhile, keeps only a narrow chance of action in September.