SEC To Weigh ‘Innovation Exception’ Tied To Crypto, Atkins Says

The Securities and Exchange Commission is weighing an innovation exemption from regulations to incentivize tokenization, Chairman Paul Atkins said, after the US House passed a landmark stablecoin bill earlier Thursday.

“Staff is considering what other changes may be appropriate to incentivize tokenization within our regulatory framework, including an innovation exception that would permit novel ways of trading and more narrowly tailored forms of relief to facilitate the building of other components of a tokenized securities ecosystem,” he said at a press event.

Atkins praised the passage of stablecoin legislation, which is now headed to President Donald Trump, and told reporters the agency is looking forward to “establishing clear rules of the road” for the digital asset space.

He has taken a vastly different approach to crypto compared with his predecessor, Gary Gensler, who critics often accused of trying to regulate the industry through enforcement. Previously, Atkins said he plans to walk back much of the Gensler-era rules, including a framework that enables brokers to act as custodians for digital assets.

A potential “innovation exception” from the SEC comes amid an effort by some financial institutions to tokenize popular US stocks, while others seek to create tokenized products of privately-held companies.

“It's hard to say exactly where things will go or what will happen, but, you know, assets clearly are moving on chain. So if it can be tokenized, it will be tokenized,” Atkins said.

The SEC chairman called the stablecoin legislation a “historic step” in making the US the crypto capital of the world. The bill, which sets regulatory rules for dollar-backed stablecoins, would require firms to hold dollar-for-dollar reserves in short-term government debt or similar products overseen by state or federal regulators.

Supporters say it could unlock faster, cheaper forms of payments — and bring legitimacy to a $265 billion market that Citigroup Inc. analysts expect could increase to $3.7 trillion by 2030. Some Democrats, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, criticized the bill and said it wouldn't do enough to protect consumers.