The appeal of the United States will come from both "better market structure" and "higher standards of rights."

Author: Charlie Liu

Two speeches, five days apart, have aligned the chessboard of American crypto finance.

On July 31, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins announced "Project Crypto," incorporating "bringing the U.S. capital markets fully on-chain" into the regulatory agenda.

On August 4, Commissioner Hester M. Peirce directly addressed the reconstruction of financial privacy and regulatory concepts at UC Berkeley's "Peanut Butter & Watermelon."

When viewed together, you will find that the U.S. is not only enhancing the attractiveness of capital markets with "clearer rules" but also reshaping the appeal of talent with a "deeper understanding of rights."

Two Speeches

Atkins' "Project Crypto" is a declaration of a "market structure-level" transformation.

He traced the historical context from the Buttonwood Agreement of the New York Stock Exchange to the birth of ATS (Alternative Trading Systems), landing on today's reality: moving the issuance, custody, and trading of U.S. assets fully on-chain.

There are three key points:

First, using clear and simple actionable standards to resolve the old question of "is it a security?" and delineating clear tracks for different types of tokens (digital goods, stablecoins, securities tokens with distributable income, etc.).

Second, modernizing custody rules while publicly emphasizing that "self-custody is a core American value," and incorporating on-chain activities like staking into compliant investment activities.

Third, proposing a regulatory concept of a "super-app"—a regulated platform that simultaneously handles both securities and non-securities digital assets, reducing market efficiency losses caused by fragmented regulation.

The entire speech repeatedly emphasized "bringing back the outflowing businesses and teams to the U.S." and connected Project Crypto with the President's Working Group (PWG) and the recently introduced federal stablecoin legislation.

Peirce's "Peanut Butter & Watermelon," on the other hand, is a "social contract-level" redefinition of financial privacy in the digital age.

She approached the topic from the third-party doctrine and the reporting practices of BSA/AML, pointing out a key misconception: transferring the large-scale surveillance of the banking system directly to peer-to-peer crypto networks.

Since technology eliminates intermediaries, the boundaries of rights should also be updated; otherwise, it will foster a compliance impulse of "report everything," which incurs higher costs without necessarily yielding better results.

She cited numerous cases and data to illustrate the need to redraw the boundaries of privacy and regulation in the digital environment, opposing the default inclusion of ordinary users and developers in the surveillance chain.

She does not deny the necessity of combating crime but emphasizes that proportionality principles should be followed, precise law enforcement should be implemented, and the legitimacy of privacy-enhancing technologies should be defended.

Character Profiles

Atkins' professional background is that of a "market structure engineer."

He served as an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008, was the non-executive chairman of BATS Global Markets from 2012 to 2015, and then founded and ran the compliance and market structure consulting firm Patomak until he became the 34th SEC chairman in April 2025.

From his public resume, it is evident that he places great importance on key points such as "promoting competition" and "reducing unnecessary overlapping regulation," which is why "Project Crypto" appears to be a design blueprint aligning exchanges, brokers, clearing, custody, and on-chain settlement.

Peirce is labeled as "Crypto Mom," but more importantly, she possesses a "dual perspective" both inside and outside the system.

She has been an SEC commissioner since 2018, previously conducted research at the Mercatus Center, served as a senior legal advisor to the Senate Banking Committee, and earlier worked as a lawyer in the SEC's investment management division, where she was also a legal advisor to Atkins.

This background allows her to be familiar with the boundaries of legislation and enforcement while finding a foothold in the framework of technology and rights to "update legal principles rather than merely updating rules."

Due to these backgrounds and the trust from Atkins, she is currently designated to lead the SEC's Crypto Task Force.

Capital and Talent

If we break down U.S. competitiveness into two curves—capital market attractiveness and talent attractiveness—these two speeches happen to pull each curve, intersecting to form a combined force.

Atkins concretizes "capital market attractiveness" as: certainty in token classification, parallel custody and self-custody, unification of trading venues, and compliance in on-chain settlement.

These can directly enhance the efficiency of "issuance—trading—clearing—custody," releasing the liquidity of dollar assets on-chain.

Peirce establishes "talent attractiveness" on first principles: financial privacy is a component of civil rights and should not be "defaulted away" due to technological changes.

Regulation needs to be auditable and accountable, but it cannot come at the expense of universal freedoms.

In other words, the former makes the tracks usable, while the latter makes people willing to get on the tracks.

Comparative Perspective on Global Regulation

The current international competition is no longer about "whether there is regulation," but rather whose regulation resembles a "computable, composable" operating system.

Europe's MiCA will first implement rules for two categories of stablecoins, ART and EMT, in 2024, providing a unified standard from white paper obligations, capital and reserves, information disclosure to redemption timelines, suitable for cross-border "passports." This system excels at "exchanging licenses for certainty," but still defines DeFi's native interactions around service providers.

The UAE's dual-track system—the Dubai VARA's "Virtual Assets and Related Activities Regulations" (2023) and Abu Dhabi ADGM's FRT (Fiat Referenced Token) framework—boasts a "high transparency + fast iteration" regulatory manual, indeed providing a "checklist licensing" for exchanges, custody, and issuance businesses. Its characteristic is to "first establish the business pipeline," then continuously fine-tune through updated guidelines.

Hong Kong's "Stablecoin Ordinance," effective August 1, 2025, incorporates "fiat-backed stablecoin issuance" into licensed activities, with the Monetary Authority leading the details and licensing, forming a top-down path of "first stablecoins, then a broader token market." Its strength lies in clear legal hierarchy and a defined primary regulator, but the ecosystem's capacity to accommodate purely public chain native applications and cross-border collaboration still needs observation.

Singapore's MAS finalized a stablecoin framework in 2023, proposing "100% high-quality reserves, redemption within five working days, independent audits, and capital constraints." Japan, in its 2023 revision of the "Funds Settlement Act," positioned "yen-denominated stablecoins" as "currency-denominated assets," limiting issuance to "banks, trusts, and money transfer operators." South Korea's draft "Digital Asset Basic Law" emphasizes "bankruptcy isolation," reserve custody, and auditing.

Their commonality is to use payment stablecoins as an entry point, first making money programmable, then connecting securities and physical asset tokenization.

The U.S. narrative of "first principles" has two layers.

The first layer is at the "money" level: The GENIUS Act signed by Trump on July 18 established a "federal root" for payment stablecoins, requiring 1:1 high liquidity reserves, regular disclosures, and designed "super-priority" holder protection clauses in bankruptcy; from payment clearing to fund preservation, and then to licensing entities (banks/federal non-banks), it is the first time that "the programmable form of the dollar" has been included in a unified standard.

The second layer is at the "rights" level: Peirce is not simply talking about "light regulation," but rather placing the third-party principle and the real effects of BSA on the table, advocating for "proportionality principles + precise law enforcement" to replace "general summons-style surveillance," which is a return to "privacy as a fundamental human right."

Compared to Europe, which is "license-centered," the Middle East, which is "business checklist-centered," and Asia, which is "payment-led," the U.S. is attempting to place "rights and market structure" as parallel starting points for the system, which is precisely what can provide long-term confidence to developers and entrepreneurs.

Overseas Strategy

Based on fifteen years of experience in the U.S. and global finance and fintech sectors, here are some strategic suggestions for Chinese capital and Web3/RWA companies:

First, strategic positioning should be layered.

In the short term, one can "surround the city from the countryside," using Hong Kong/Singapore/UAE/Europe as growth and compliance practice grounds; but in the medium to long term, the U.S. must be placed at the core, and planning should start now.

The U.S. is simultaneously a source of profit pools, valuation centers, and discourse power; not entering means long-term undervaluation.

The entry threshold is not just about costs but also about respect for first principles: products must be inherently "privacy-friendly," and compliance must be "auditable and accountable."

Second, the dual focus on products and licenses.

After the GENIUS Act lays the federal framework for payment stablecoins, dollar-denominated on-chain cash and short-term debt funds will become standard for B2B, cross-border settlements, and on-chain finance.

For companies primarily based on stablecoins, RWA, and brokerage infrastructure, prioritize making reserve composition, redemption mechanisms, independent audits, and bankruptcy isolation "U.S.-ready," and practice operational metrics and risk control rhythms with real funds and real clients in jurisdictions like Singapore/UAE/Europe, accumulating internal control documents and audit trails into "compliance assets."

Third, American-style integration of channels and ecosystems.

Atkins' "super-app" direction suggests that the U.S. may allow a more "unified licensing stack," which raises new interface requirements for collaboration between trading and market-making, brokerage and advisory, synthetic assets and custody.

A pragmatic approach is to establish ecological cooperation with the U.S. financial system as early as possible in compliance whitelists, clearing connections, and on-chain settlement pilots, making oneself a "pluggable" node-type enterprise rather than building a heavy asset player with a full-process pipeline.

Fourth, localization of narrative and teams.

Peirce's speech signals that U.S. regulation is moving towards a "scientific quantification and proportionality principle" in the triangle relationship of "privacy—compliance—efficiency."

Your risk control team, data engineering, and legal affairs need to demonstrate value under the logic of "reducing ineffective reporting while retaining effective audits"; your core engineers must also be willing to iterate in a culture of "writing rights into products"—this is precisely the key to attracting top talent in the U.S.

More importantly, your business and operations teams need to deeply understand local narratives and business culture, translating regulatory language into business language and technical advantages into customer value, establishing long-term trust in the multiple contexts of industry associations, state and federal regulation, institutional compliance, and procurement.

Conclusion

The appeal of the United States will come from both "better market structure" and "higher standards of rights."

Reading Atkins' "Project Crypto" and Peirce's "Peanut Butter & Watermelon" together, you will see an America that appeals to both capital and talent:

The former uses institutional certainty and market engineering to draw liquidity and issuance back; the latter, through the first principles of privacy and freedom, encourages developers, users, and brands to set the "default market" here.

For Chinese enterprises and capital, even if the U.S. is not the immediate "only battlefield," it is certainly a "high ground" that must be conquered in the medium to long term.

First, refine compliance and technology stacks that can seamlessly migrate to the U.S. in surrounding markets, then choose the right moment to enter, thoroughly integrating Web3 and Web2 finance in the U.S., where "narrative and system are in sync," which is the correct way to navigate cycles and share in the digitalization dividends of dollar assets.

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