SEC Chair Atkins Outlines 2026 Crypto Regulatory Agenda at ETHDenver, February 2026

On 18 February 2026, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins and Commissioner Hester M. Peirce delivered remarks at the ETHDenver conference in Denver, Colorado. The speech — delivered in the form of a public dialogue — constituted an official statement by Chairman Atkins in his capacity as the 34th Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Chairman Atkins confirmed that the SEC has ended regulation by enforcement of crypto assets and described a detailed 2026 regulatory agenda for digital assets, to be pursued through Project Crypto, a joint initiative with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), with CFTC Chairman Mike Selig formerly serving on the SEC Crypto Task Force.

The SEC's statutory authority to regulate securities, including investment contracts, derives from the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. § 78a et seq.) and the Securities Act of 1933 (15 U.S.C. § 77a et seq.). Chairman Atkins stated that the SEC plans to issue, in 2026, the following items: a Commission framework for how crypto assets subject to investment contracts are formed and terminated; an innovation exemption for limited trading of tokenised securities on novel platforms; a rulemaking proposal for capital-raising pathways involving crypto assets; no-action letters and exemptive orders addressing wallets and user interfaces; rulemaking on custody of non-security crypto assets including payment stablecoins by broker-dealers; and a transfer agent modernisation rulemaking accommodating blockchain-based recordkeeping.

For crypto exchanges, DeFi protocol operators, tokenisation platforms, stablecoin issuers, custodians, and broker-dealers engaging in crypto activities, the Chairman's statement signals that formal rulemaking and exemptive relief — rather than enforcement actions — will define SEC regulatory action in 2026. The proposed innovation exemption would limit trading volume and provide relief from certain rules while allowing temporary operation; participants would undergo a white-listing process. Decentralised applications on public, permissionless blockchains and DeFi participants appear within scope of the proposed relief.

The Chairman noted that the SEC has already: rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin 121; published staff statements on crypto asset custody by broker-dealers and a taxonomy for tokenised securities; approved generic listing standards for crypto ETPs; and issued no-action letters on tokenisation and DePIN. The innovation exemption and custody rulemaking timelines were not specified. Rulemakings require notice-and-comment under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. § 553), and no formal rulemaking dockets have yet been opened for the items described.

Source: Paul S. Atkins, Chairman, and Hester M. Peirce, Commissioner, "Number Go Down and Other Schadenfreude — Remarks at ETHDenver," U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Denver, CO, 18 February 2026. Available at: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/atkins-peirce-021826-number-go-down-other-schadenfreude. Confirmed current as of 9 March 2026.

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