On 7 July 2026, United States Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC) Chairman Paul S. Atkins outlined the US SEC’s 2026 Regulatory Agenda, centred on digital asset innovation, public-market revitalisation and broader investor access to private markets.
For digital assets, the US SEC intends to develop clearer rules for cryptoasset capital raising, bring more products and businesses onshore, and clarify how regulated entities may custody and trade tokenised securities onchain. Chairman Atkins emphasised that innovation would be accompanied by investor-protection safeguards and continued enforcement against market misconduct.
The agenda also seeks to reverse the decline in the number of public companies. Proposed reforms to the disclosure framework will be guided by materiality and are intended to reduce unnecessary compliance burdens, encourage more companies to undertake IPOs and improve access to public-market investment opportunities.
In the private markets, the US SEC is considering measures to facilitate greater retail investor participation, subject to appropriate safeguards. The overall direction reflects a broader shift towards capital formation, regulatory clarity and technology-led market modernisation while retaining the Commission’s core investor-protection mandate.
The 2026 Regulatory Agenda signals an increasingly facilitative US regulatory approach. Cryptoasset issuers, tokenisation businesses, intermediaries and prospective public companies should closely monitor the forthcoming proposals, particularly those concerning digital asset offerings, onchain securities markets, disclosure reform and retail access to private investments.
Source: United States Securities and Exchange Commission, “Statement on the 2026 Regulatory Agenda”, 7 July 2026.
