Written by: Eric, Foresight News

On the morning of December 2, local time, Paul Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), confirmed in a speech at the New York Stock Exchange that the innovation exemption rules for cryptocurrency companies have been included in the 2026 roadmap and will officially take effect in January next year.

Cryptocurrency itself was not the core topic of this speech. Paul Atkins chose to speak at the New York Stock Exchange to reduce disclosure requirements for innovative businesses, lessen mandatory disclosures, and scale down requirements based on company size, making it easier for small companies to go public. Additionally, Paul Atkins hopes to promote the "depoliticization" of shareholder meetings, shifting the focus back to company operations.

Paul Atkins believes that the current regulatory disclosure requirements are overly complex and should focus on "financial significance." Bloomberg interprets that Paul Atkins is hinting at the Trump administration's opposition to shareholder proposals focused on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) measures, suggesting that disclosures in this area should be reduced.

The mention of these seemingly unrelated issues with crypto is because the specific terms of the innovation exemption rules for cryptocurrency companies have yet to be announced. However, we can draw some simple conclusions from the listings of several Web3 industry companies this year and the attitude of the new Federal Reserve Chairman:

First, the new SEC leadership does not intend to "loosen regulations," but rather aims to eliminate outdated and redundant rules from existing regulations to lower compliance costs for companies. Many U.S. media reports have mentioned that Paul Atkins wants to reduce the requirements for "mandatory disclosures" while increasing the emphasis on "financial significance" information. The listings of crypto companies like Circle and Bullish reflect this trend.

As for "exemptions," U.S. securities law has long had clear provisions, essentially referring to special circumstances that can exempt complex registration processes. Many previous token issuances have actually utilized the exemption policies of securities law and must meet a series of requirements to potentially list on exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken for retail investors in the U.S.

However, meeting the requirements for these exemption policies is itself a very complicated matter. I have learned from informed sources that Zksync had wanted to issue tokens for a long time, but such a large-scale project underwent very complex adjustments in its organizational structure to avoid regulatory troubles, ultimately succeeding in issuing tokens while ensuring full compliance.

All of these examples have one major premise: tokens are still defined as a type of security in some sense. However, the new exemption policies may bring some changes.

On November 12, local time, Paul Atkins stated in a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia that Project Crypto will "draw a line" to distinguish different types of crypto assets. Paul Atkins categorizes crypto assets into four types:

• Digital commodities or network tokens: value derived from a well-functioning and decentralized network, rather than from management's promises;
• Digital collectibles: NFTs and similar items purchased for use or appreciation, rather than for profit;
• Digital tools: utility tokens that provide access or credentials;
• Tokenized securities: representations of traditional financial instruments based on blockchain.

Paul Atkins believes that the first three do not constitute securities. However, directly opening a new asset class that is not a security but resembles one clearly poses significant risks. Thus, the "innovation exemption" for cryptocurrency companies has emerged, which may function similarly to a regulatory sandbox, allowing the SEC to explore a final regulatory approach through a period of "light regulation."

Due to the impact of the government shutdown, the complete exemption rules are expected to be announced upon their effectiveness. Currently, public information is very limited, but I have still found some clues regarding the exemption terms.

In the SEC comment letter published on April 13, 2025, it mentioned terms from an early version of the exemption proposal: the proposal conditions exemptions for ICOs to facilitate early fundraising for blockchain projects. It implements a mandatory basic registration system to ensure oversight of entities under the exemption and prevent abuse. The SEC establishes public verification tools to enhance transparency and investor protection.

Additionally, in Paul Atkins' speech on Project Crypto on November 12, he mentioned: In the coming months, as envisioned by current congressional legislation, I hope the committee will consider a set of exemption measures to create a tailored issuance system for crypto assets that are part of or bound by investment contracts. I have asked staff to prepare recommendations to facilitate capital formation and adapt to innovation while ensuring investor protection.

Clearly, the exemption measures taking effect in January should be an extension independent of securities law, or at least of the exemption requirements of securities law. Combined with the new SEC Chairman's determination to correct overregulation, the new rules may not require Web3 projects seeking to issue assets or conduct public financing to undergo excessive disclosures, but there will certainly be a simple registration process and disclosure standards.

Speaking of disclosure standards, one naturally thinks of the information disclosed by Coinbase during the public sale of the Monad token, which included the identity of the market maker and market-making terms. This means that while the disclosure requirements may be relatively simple, these previously non-mandatory key pieces of information may become indispensable in the future. Furthermore, the lowering of requirements for tokens and token issuance projects will inevitably correspond to higher requirements for the platforms issuing tokens, which also has corresponding standards in securities law.

Thus, Coinbase's acquisition of Liquifi and Echo to lay out asset issuance and token public sales has a reasonable explanation: as a compliant platform for future token issuance. I speculate that in the future, if Web3 projects want to conduct public fundraising in the U.S. in compliance, they must rely on an institution or platform that is at least compliant with KYC, anti-money laundering, and other basic issues and registered with the SEC.

Currently, it seems that the only public information is focused on the "asset issuance" dimension. The SEC's new rules are expected to relax standards to some extent, allowing new projects to issue assets and raise funds more conveniently, but all of this will undoubtedly be built on a basic investor protection mechanism. However, compared to the past, where it was necessary to establish overseas non-profit foundations, the mechanism after the new rules may be relatively simpler.

After asset issuance, this regulatory sandbox will likely further explore issues such as the disclosure of information by issuing entities. The good news is that in the future, we can have a clearer understanding of the actual operational situation of projects; the bad news is that compliant asset issuance also provides a reasonable exit channel for projects to leave the public market due to poor management. Compliance never means a reduction in selection difficulty, and inclusivity for innovation will conversely raise higher requirements for investor professionalism.

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