Chair Paul Atkins announced the initiative in a statement today, calling crypto a \u201cgenerational opportunity.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Less than one year after the resignation of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, the new SEC leadership today announced a new initiative, dubbed \u201cProject Crypto,\u201d<\/a> which aims to overhaul<\/a> the traditional finance system with on-chain activations and DeFi integrations.<\/p>\n SEC Chair Paul Atkins released the statement today, July 31, praising DeFi & TradFi super-apps, \u201cbig beautiful software systems,\u201d and crypto\u2019s role in the evolution of capital markets. Chair Atkins went as far as to close his statement saying:<\/p>\n \u201cThis represents more than a regulatory shift \u2014 it is a generational opportunity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Chair Atkins said in his statement that Project Crypto is a “Commission-wide initiative to modernize the securities rules and regulations to enable America\u2019s financial markets to move on-chain.” The SEC Chair referenced confusion around the application of securities law to crypto assets and past SEC regimes’ policies of regulation by enforcement.<\/p>\n The initiative is being launched with the help of pro-crypto SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, and is explicitly part of the Trump administration\u2019s goal of making the United States known as the \u201ccrypto capital of the world\u201d \u2014 a sentiment broadly echoed in an extensive set of crypto policy recommendations published yesterday by the White House\u2019s digital assets working group.<\/p>\n Atkins continued in his statement saying \u201cAmerica must do more than just keep pace with the digital asset revolution. We must drive it.\u201d<\/p>\n The announcement marks a major shift away<\/a> from the previous administration\u2019s hostility towards crypto, and DeFi in particular. The recent advancement of the GENIUS and CLARITY Acts<\/a>, alongside Project Crypto, stand to prove that the Trump administration was doing more than just campaigning on crypto for voting and fundraising, which many skeptics believed.<\/p>\n Atkins went on to slam the previous administration\u2019s \u201cenforcement by crusade\u201d, directly calling out \u201cOperation Chokepoint 2.0<\/a>,\u201d and vowing to re-shore crypto businesses that fled the U.S. over the last few years.<\/p>\n