{"id":12823,"date":"2025-10-08T07:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T07:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/sec-aims-to-formalize-innovation-exemption-by-early-2026\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T07:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T07:04:16","slug":"sec-aims-to-formalize-innovation-exemption-by-early-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/sec-aims-to-formalize-innovation-exemption-by-early-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC aims to formalize innovation exemption by early 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins has confirmed that the agency wants to formalize an innovation exemption by the end of the year or early 2026 to give crypto and fintech projects a clear path to operate under regulatory supervision.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_cb96a5084362847e89fb683d313efae4\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SEC Chair Paul Atkins has reaffirmed plans to formalize an innovation exemption by late 2025 or early 2026.<\/li>\n<li>Atkins said the exemption remains a top priority despite the government shutdown.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>During his appearance at a Futures and Derivatives Law Report event on Oct. 7, Atkins<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/policy\/2025\/10\/07\/sec-aiming-to-formalize-innovation-exemption-by-end-of-year-chair-atkins-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"> acknowledged<\/a> that the current government shutdown was hampering the commission\u2019s work, but said finalizing the innovation exemption still remains a priority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs you know, we\u2019ve had four years, at least, of repression of that industry, and with the result of pushing things abroad, rather than having innovation being done,\u201d Atkins said at the event.<\/p>\n<p>For those unaware, Atkins was referring to the previous SEC administration led by former Chair Gary Gensler, during which the agency was heavily criticised for relying on an enforcement-first approach rather than well-defined rules to oversee the crypto industry.<\/p>\n<p>Many crypto advocates agree that Gensler\u2019s highly skeptical approach to the emerging industry left the U.S. behind Europe and the UK in terms of access to cryptocurrency markets and services. However, the agency\u2019s current stance with a pro-crypto leadership at the helm is a far cry from that approach.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe U.S. is catching up to Europe in this regard, as the European Commission created the European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox in 2023, which involves regulators from many European countries, such as France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and others. The benefits of this include increased legal certainty and more options for consumers,\u201d Kadan Stadelmann, Chief Technology Officer, Komodo Platform told crypto.news.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SEC innovation exemption to curb brain drain<\/h1>\n<p>Atkins had been pushing this initiative since June, when he first directed SEC staff to explore a conditional relief framework that would allow crypto projects to operate under supervised conditions. Last month, he confirmed that the agency would pursue crypto rule-making in the coming months and establish an innovation exemption by year-end.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll see where that goes, but I have confidence [we\u2019ll] be able to do it,\u201d Atkins said at the Tuesday event.<\/p>\n<p>According to the SEC Chair, the exemption is among the regulator\u2019s top priorities, as it aims to curb the ongoing brain drain of crypto developers and startups relocating overseas in search of clearer rules and friendlier regulatory environments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] I want to be welcoming to innovators and have them feel like they can do something here in the United States, so that they don\u2019t have to flee to some foreign jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stadelmann added that the U.S. can expect \u201cfaster adoption of technologies and regulatory tweaks and more harmonization with the state of the global crypto industry,\u201d once the innovation exemption is in place.<\/p>\n<p>Atkins, who took office earlier this year as one of President Trump\u2019s key appointments to position the United States as a global hub for digital asset innovation, has been advocating for a balanced regulatory model that encourages progress while safeguarding investors.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins has confirmed that the agency wants to formalize an innovation exemption by the end of the year or early 2026 to give&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12824,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12823\/revisions\/12824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}