The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission updated its 2026 regulatory agenda on July 7 and included at least three crypto-related proposed rules: Crypto Assets, amendments to broker-dealer financial responsibility and recordkeeping rules for crypto assets, and Crypto Market Structure Amendments.
Those three tracks cover issuance and sales exemptions, custody, and trading structure. The source article frames the move as a coordinated rulemaking effort rather than a one-off crypto headline.
Shift from enforcement cases to rulemaking
The article contrasts the new agenda with the SEC’s approach during Gary Gensler’s tenure, when major crypto firms including Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, and Binance faced litigation in an environment the piece describes as regulation through enforcement.
By contrast, SEC Chair Paul Atkins tied the current agenda to President Donald Trump’s stated goal of making the United States the global capital of crypto, according to the article. It also says a number of earlier lawsuits against major exchanges have already been withdrawn.
What the Crypto Assets proposal includes
The Crypto Assets proposal is presented as the center of the package. The article says the draft would include temporary relief for early-stage teams valued below $5 million and in operation for less than four years, allowing them to avoid immediately going through a full securities registration process.
It also says founders could legally raise up to $75 million through certain crypto investment contracts. On the exit side, a token would no longer be treated as a security once the issuer has completed promised development and governance work and no longer holds substantive managerial control over the project.
The article links that framework to SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce’s 2020 token safe harbor concept, saying the current process would, for the first time, move that idea into a formal rule proposal with a path to implementation.
Two clocks are running
The article says the July push is shaped by two separate deadlines.
The first is the Clarity Act. It says the bill has passed the House and that the Senate Banking Committee cleared it in May by a 15-9 vote. According to the article, if the legislation is to move this year, it must get through the Senate before August; if it slips into the November midterm election season, this year’s window would largely close.
The second deadline is personnel. Peirce’s second term expired in June last year, and she is still serving in a holdover capacity, with plans to leave in November to teach, the article says. Because she was the earliest major advocate of the safe harbor idea, her departure raises uncertainty over whether the framework would continue in the same form.
The piece cites Atkins as saying that only rules formally published in the Federal Register are durable enough to withstand a future SEC leadership change. By comparison, staff statements, no-action relief, and interpretive guidance can be reversed much more easily.
Crypto folded into a broader capital-markets agenda
The article also points to a line from Atkins: “Make IPOs Great Again.” It says he placed the crypto safe harbor inside a broader SEC narrative about reviving U.S. public markets, at a time when the number of listed companies in the United States has been shrinking and more businesses have either stayed private for longer or chosen other listing venues.
Another part of the agenda, according to the article, is an SEC plan to expand retail investor participation in private markets while keeping investor protections in place. If implemented, that would loosen access to a segment of the primary market that has long been reserved mainly for institutions and high-net-worth investors.
Viewed together, the article argues, the SEC is trying to ease two barriers at once: access restrictions in private markets and uncertainty over whether crypto assets may later be classified as securities.
What it could mean for offshore structures
The article says offshore structuring has been a standard compliance play for years, with legal entities set up in the Cayman Islands, token sales run from Singapore or Dubai, and U.S. investors carefully excluded to limit securities-law risk in the United States.
If the U.S. establishes a clearer safe harbor and also advances custody and market-structure rules, that offshore logic could weaken, the article says. It adds that a clearer framework could also remove a major obstacle for traditional venture capital firms and family offices that have avoided tokens because of uncertainty over securities treatment.
Still, the source article notes that these measures remain proposals. They have not yet entered the formal public comment phase, and final adoption would still require further rulemaking steps.
For now, the next few weeks matter most. The article identifies two immediate tests: whether the Clarity Act can keep moving in the Senate, and whether the safe harbor rule can be finalized before Peirce leaves in November.