Crypto Is 'Job One' as U.S. SEC, CFTC Move Into Harmony on Policies: Chairman Atkins

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins said that "crypto is job one" as his agency hosted a Monday roundtable focused on harmonizing policy work with its sister regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Both agencies are set to have central roles in overseeing the digital assets markets in the U.S., with the SEC overseeing crypto securities and the CFTC — especially after it's expected to be given more authority by Congress — supervising the bulk of digital assets transactions. But leaders of both have said they want the borders between securities and commodities to be seamless, allowing single firms or even apps to traverse both without difficulty.

"Our two agencies must work in lockstep," Atkins told a crowd of financial compliance lawyers and industry representatives at the SEC headquarters in Washington. "What matters is building a framework where our agencies coordinate seamlessly."

Read More: SEC, CFTC Chiefs Say Crypto Turf Wars Over as Agencies Move Ahead on Joint Work

The CFTC Acting Chairman Caroline Pham added, "It's a new day, and the turf war is over."

Though it's an unusually powerful sentiment from these agencies, which have often been at odds with each other, the CFTC side is still absent a permanent leader to assure its strategic decisions won't be shifted under new management. But Pham spent some of her time at the microphone assuring the crowd that her agency is moving at a rapid pace under her leadership.

"The CFTC is alive and well, and there needs to be no more FUD about what's going on," she said, evoking the common crypto-world acronym for "fear, uncertainty and doubt."

Atkins commented on the CFTC leadership under Pham, with whom he's been working together on crypto initiatives, as "full-speed ahead."

On the sidelines of the roundtable event, the SEC chairman told reporters that "obviously, top priority right now is crypto."

He said in response to a question from CoinDesk that President Donald Trump "kind of laid down the gauntlet" and wants to sign a market structure bill by the end of the year. "We'll see how that goes."

Asset tokenization will be one particular area of SEC focus, he said, though he said it may take "a year or two" to erect regulatory guardrails around the activity.

"The potential is pretty much endless," he said.

Atkins also dismissed speculation about the SEC and CFTC merging, calling it "fanciful."

The Monday roundtable was the latest SEC event that put some focus on the crypto space, though this one represented a wider cooperation between the agencies. Weighing in on the panels were digital assets and blockchain leaders from such firms as Kraken, Crypto.com, Polymarket, Kalshi and Robinhood Markets.