For a decade, the SEC waged war on crypto through enforcement. Now Paul Atkins is doing something far more dangerous to the old guard: he’s winning.
Last week, the SEC Chair announced an ‘innovation exemption’ coming in January 2026, the formal end of a decade-long regulatory war that cost American venture capital billions. [ANNOUNCEMENT]
The “regulation by enforcement” era officially ends. After a brief delay due to the government shutdown, SEC Chair Paul Atkins confirmed the “Innovation Exemption” launches in January 2026. This directive—part of “Project Crypto“—allows digital asset firms to launch on-chain products under a temporary “sandbox” without immediate registration, provided they meet specific guardrails.[Update]
“ICOs transcend all four topics. Three of those areas are on the CFTC side, so we’ll let them worry about that, and we’ll focus on tokenized securities.”
– Paul Atkins, SEC Chair
Zooming in: For years, regulators have assumed that most crypto tokens are securities, primarily because many originated from initial fundraising deals. This view focused on how a token was created, not how it is used today. Paul Atkins’ appointment as SEC Chair and the launch of Project Crypto in mid-2025 marked a major shift in how the agency thinks about digital assets.
