U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins strongly encouraged lawmakers to pass the prominent crypto market structure legislation known as the Clarity Act, while emphasizing that the commission’s own digital asset roadmap will advance regardless of whether the bill succeeds.
During a keynote address on Monday at a gathering hosted by the Solana Policy Institute in Washington, Atkins stated that Congress ought to approve the Clarity Act and deliver it to the president for signing as swiftly as possible. Nevertheless, he added that with or without that piece of legislation, the current administration will deliver favorable outcomes for American investors and technological creators.
The Senate prepares to conduct a cloture vote on Tuesday afternoon local time regarding the motion to take up the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, serving as a legislative test to determine if the comprehensive market framework commands sufficient backing to move forward.
SEC to advance crypto agenda regardless of Clarity Act vote
Atkins dedicated a significant portion of his remarks to outlining the SEC’s concurrent regulatory initiative dubbed “Project Crypto,” drawing attention to three core pillars that will dictate how digital assets are issued, transferred, and stored within the United States.
The initial element is the commission’s proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, which Atkins characterized as one of the agency’s most ambitious undertakings aimed at updating securities rules for the digital asset space.
Implementing this framework, he noted, would provide creators with greater regulatory certainty when raising funds domestically via digital assets instead of forcing them to navigate shifting rules on the fly.
The second pillar involves an overhaul of transfer agent regulations to integrate blockchain technology for digital ownership tracking. Atkins pointed out that these guidelines have remained largely unchanged for roughly forty years and were originally tailored for paper share certificates, whereas modern transfer agents are already adjusting to a marketplace increasingly leaning toward tokenized assets.
Furthermore, Atkins mentioned he directed SEC personnel to formulate a framework that clarifies crypto custody requirements for registered investment advisers and regulated investment funds. This specific initiative aims to permit advisers, under specified conditions, to maintain self-custody over digital assets or rely on state trust institutions as custodians.
Atkins explained that self-custody might prove necessary because third-party qualified custodians are not yet available for certain tokens, whereas state trust companies already offer an operational pathway that functions effectively in practice.
Together, he characterized these three distinct initiatives as the foundational pillars of a single, sensible, and comprehensive regulatory framework.
The SEC must not remain the final organization to recognize that the global landscape has fundamentally transformed, he remarked.
The push for the Clarity Act vote arrives while the legislation faces a challenging path, as multiple major disputes remain unresolved ahead of Tuesday’s procedural ballot.
On Monday, a coalition of eight banking associations, encompassing the American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, and the Independent Community Bankers of America, called upon Senate leadership to strengthen limitations surrounding stablecoin yields and incentives, warning that current provisions could spark deposit outflows and diminish lending capacity.
In a separate development, a group consisting of 18 state attorneys general alongside the District of Columbia cautioned that the existing legislation might impair their authority to combat crypto-related fraud, urging senators to reject the bill unless those enforcement powers receive adequate protection.
Initial optimism surrounding the measure also diminished as the day progressed, highlighting prevailing market uncertainty. By Monday afternoon, participants on Polymarket priced the likelihood of the crypto market structure bill passing into law during 2026 at a mere 17%, shedding the majority of an earlier daily peak near 30%.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/09/14/sec-s-atkins-backs-clarity-act-but-says-agency-will-keep-pushing-crypto-rules-without-it.
