Corporate Counsel Daily, SEC’s Atkins says crypto is ‘job one’, (Mar 5, 2026)

By Suzanne Cosgrove

Regulators outline priorities for modernizing market rulemaking; CFTC eyes perpetual futures, on-chain markets.

In a joint appearance at a Milken Institute conference on Tuesday, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Michael Selig stressed newfound harmonization between the two regulators, with Selig calling Project Crypto “a historic initiative” between the agencies to upgrade and modernize rules and regulations, future-proofing them not only for technologies like blockchain and crypto, but also for other technologies.

Atkins said crypto assets are “job one” for the regulator. He said the SEC has changed its approach to crypto in the last decade or so. That evolution, he said, began with “the ostrich and the head-in-the-sand approach, hoping that maybe all this would go away,” and was followed by regulation through enforcement and “kind of an empty invitation to fill out an easy form on the website.”

But the form, SEC Form S-1, a registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933, “ain't that easy,” he said.

A “new day.”“Obviously, we've withdrawn a big number of enforcement actions that were predicated on registration,” Atkins said. “How can you expect someone to register if there was really no way for them to do it?” he asked.

“We are taking firm steps to change it, but even before I got to the SEC, Hester Peirce, one of the commissioners who was my counsel back when I was a [SEC] commissioner, headed up our crypto task force, which now has become Project Crypto,” he said.

“We have forged ahead to using our exemptive authority and other sorts of advisory work to get people to where they need to be to forge ahead of new products,” Atkins said.

Selig, in turn, said the CFTC is interested in following the SEC’s example with an innovation exemption that allows for firms to create new products “without the fear of regulation by enforcement that the prior administration brought.”

Perpetual futures. In addition, “we've got to have clear rules of the road at the CFTC,” said Selig, which starts with our existing derivatives markets. “Many of the firms want to move on-chain. The prior administration drove a lot of these firms and the liquidity offshore,” he said.

The perpetuals markets are a great example of that move, Selig added. “We've had perpetual futures contracts and crypto assets for a very long time, really since the early days of the markets. But they've developed offshore. They've been on exchanges in Asia and Europe, in the Bahamas, and elsewhere. And we've got to bring that back to the United States.

“We're working towards getting perpetual futures, true perpetual futures, not long-dated contracts, here in the U.S. within the next month or so,” Selig said, adding that he expects to announce that soon.

“We're also working towards on-chain markets,” Selig said. “The prior administration really went after firms that were just offering software products that allow users to hold digital assets, to transact on digital networks, and to access front ends and participate in the blockchain networks. … We're going to make sure that it's very clear as to what implicates the CFTC regulations and what doesn't.”

Splitting responsibilities. Atkins said he is looking at a split of market responsibilities between the SEC and the CFTC. “Tokenized securities are clearly securities—whether they're paper form or digital asset form. But then other digital assets are commodities, which are in the CFTC’s realm,” he said.

It’s not just a crypto effort, Selig added. “There's so many products and so many market participants that have just been strangled by duplicative regulation, and there's a lot that's fallen through the cracks because the agencies have not been able to work collaboratively and cooperatively with one another.”

“Prediction markets are another area where we have a lot of shared authority, similar products, similar platforms, but slightly different jurisdictions, Selig said. “So, we're working together to make sure that things are seamless, and market participants aren't really the victims of this turf battle between the two agencies.”

“The prediction markets tend to get it right,” Selig told the group. “I think they are an important tool to have here in the United States. And I would have less confidence if the center of prediction markets were in China or Russia or somewhere else. … the more we try to block these markets -- we saw it with crypto -- it just goes offshore.”

Loper Bright cited. “The two of us, working together,” can bring certainty, Atkins said, but we also need statutory certainty. The Supreme Court decision Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, “basically threw out court deference to agencies like ours,” Arkins said.

“We're working with Congress,” Atkins said, “and we're … forging ahead to try to recognize digital assets and get them squared away as far as regulatory recognition goes.”

“In a post-Loper Bright world, courts can and will interpret the Supreme Court precedent and other things the way they might depending on the facts,” he said, “that's why we need the sense of Congress enshrined in statutory form, to direct the courts where to go.”

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