The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has called off a public meeting scheduled for Friday morning, where its three commissioners were set to vote on whether to advance the agency’s first crypto-specific rules. Reuters reported the cancellation on Thursday.
The formal notice, issued under the Sunshine Act and signed by SEC Secretary Vanessa Countryman, says only that the meeting "has been cancelled." It does not list a new date. An SEC spokesperson separately told reporters the session would be rescheduled to a later date because of an "unforeseen scheduling issue," without adding detail.
The SEC had dated the original notice August 10, giving about three business days of advance notice. The agenda contained a single item.
Vote would have opened comment on crypto exemptions
Commissioners had been expected to decide whether to publish for comment a package of exemptions that would let crypto startups raise capital without fully following traditional securities offering rules. Founders in the sector have sought that kind of registration relief for years.
A vote would not have created binding rules. It would only have opened the proposal to public comment. Even so, the step would have marked the first time the SEC tried to write rules aimed specifically at crypto rather than applying existing securities law to the industry.
Meeting was announced after the Senate left without moving the Clarity Act
The meeting was announced on Monday, four days before it was due to take place, shorter than the agency’s customary one-week notice period. The timing was widely read as an SEC effort to fill the gap after the Senate left on Saturday for a five-week recess without advancing the Clarity Act.
For now, both tracks have stalled.
The bill’s next procedural test is not expected until September, and its odds this year appear limited. On Myriad, the prediction market owned by Decrypt parent company Dastan, traders put the chance of the bill being signed into law in 2026 at 20%.
Atkins had outlined broad crypto guidance in March
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins laid out broad guidance for the crypto industry in March. He said a safe harbor could cover startups worth up to $5 million that are experimenting with crypto during their first four years, entrepreneurs raising up to $75 million through investment contracts, and tokens whose creators have stopped all essential managerial efforts.
A separate innovation exemption, which is still in progress, would allow firms to test blockchain-based stocks and similar products without satisfying every SEC disclosure requirement.
CFTC event still on for August 20
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is still moving ahead with its own event: the inaugural meeting of its Innovation Advisory Committee on August 20. The agenda opens with a session titled "Crypto’s Regulatory Evolution: From Uncertainty to Clarity" and then turns to artificial intelligence and prediction markets.
That meeting is advisory in nature. It produces recommendations, not rules.