Atkins Confirms SEC's 'Reg Crypto' Is One White House Stamp Away From Launch

The SEC is about to drop its "Reg Crypto" proposal faster than you can say "final rule" — it just needs the White House to give it the official nod, Chair Paul Atkins said Monday. The vibes are immaculate.

The proposal is currently sitting pretty at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) — literally one bureaucratic foot tap away from publication. It'll zero in on the Securities Act of 1933 and take a hard look at fundraising and startup exemptions, because apparently the SEC finally remembered that startups exist and maybe shouldn't have to navigate a labyrinth designed during the Great Depression.

But wait, there's more. Atkins also teased that the SEC's long-awaited innovation exemption is coming down the pipeline, which would let founders cook up new projects without immediately getting rug-pulled by regulatory uncertainty. The dream: startups can experiment without the SEC breathing down their necks like a overbearing DAO moderator.

"We'd love to have reactions and everything else," he told CoinDesk after his Vanderbilt University talk. "It's not a rule as such but obviously we need to know how it's functioning and if people have problems with it or not." Translation: please don't flame us on Twitter, we're trying our best here.

And in case anyone thought this was just about rulemaking, Atkins pivoted hard to politics, urging the crypto crowd to show up loud for the 2026 midterm elections. He pointed to Senator Bernie Moreno as proof that electing friendly faces actually moves the needle.

"We've got to make sure that your friends are in Congress," he said. "I think you saw how that really paid benefits in the last election." Essentially: vote blue or get rekt by regulation. Classic divide-and-conquer energy.