SEC Chairman Paul Atkins is positioning the agency's newly proposed Regulation Crypto Assets as a deliberate strategy to bring crypto companies back to the United States after years of departures.
Atkins attributed the exodus of crypto firms to aggressive enforcement rather than regulatory ambiguity. He argued that founders needed clear guidance and that the previous approach forced crypto assets to comply with securities rules from the 1930s that were never designed for digital tokens.
"In fact, in the past, it actively undermined capital formation with regard to this asset class in the form of regulation by enforcement and disingenuous offers to 'come in and register'," Atkins said in a statement.
The chairman emphasized that the new proposal includes two capital-raising exemptions designed to reassure founders. He noted that investors can already move money across borders easily and that blocking them from doing so legally in the United States only pushes activity further away.
"We can't fool ourselves. American investors in the age of the internet can send their money anywhere. So we need to make sure that they can do it here in the United States under United States law," Atkins told Fox Business.
Atkins stressed that SEC rulemaking alone will not be sufficient. He is pressing Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, which would divide crypto oversight between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Only legislation, he argued, can establish durable rules that a future SEC cannot simply reverse.
Atkins framed both the SEC's rulemaking efforts and Congressional action as part of the same broader initiative to bring capital and innovation back to the United States.
