SEC May Grant Blockchain Industry a Green Light Under “Innovation Exemption”

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins says the agency is considering enacting a blockchain relief framework that could see key actors allowed to offer products and services “expeditiously.”

Paul Atkins Criticizes Gensler-Era Policies, Posits Relief Framework

Speaking at SEC headquarters for the Crypto Task Force’s final roundtable in its “Spring Sprint Toward Clarity” program, Atkins suggested that the federal regulator may offer an immediate innovation-friendly framework with regard to the blockchain sector as a whole.

“While the Commission and its staff work to propose fit-for-purpose rules of the road for on-chain financial markets, I have directed the staff to consider a conditional exemptive relief framework or ‘innovation exemption’ that would expeditiously allow registrants and non-registrants to bring on-chain products and services to market,” Atkins said.

“An innovation exemption could help fulfill President Trump’s vision to make America the ‘crypto capital of the planet’ by encouraging developers, entrepreneurs, and other firms that are willing to comply with certain conditions to innovate with on-chain technologies in the United States,” he added.

Key points from Chairman Paul Atkins’ remarks today at “DeFi and the American Spirit,” SEC’s Crypto Task Force Roundtable on Decentralized Finance – a 🧵

— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) June 9, 2025

The newly confirmed SEC head also criticized the agency’s previous regulatory stance toward digital assets under then-chair Gary Gensler, stating that the regulator “must adopt a regulation based on the authority that Congress has given us.”

“The prior U.S. government administration discouraged Americans from participating in these market-based systems by asserting through lawsuits, speeches, regulation, and threatened regulatory action that participants and staking-as-a-service providers may be engaged in securities transactions,” he said.

SEC Shifts Toward Crypto-Friendly Stance

Atkins’ latest remarks come as the SEC undergoes major transformation under the Trump administration, shifting away from its regulation-by-enforcement strategy to a more crypto-friendly approach to the digital asset sector.

In the past few months alone, the commission has dropped several high-profile lawsuits against key players in the crypto industry, including Coinbase, Ripple, and Robinhood Crypto.

However, it is still unclear what a crypto regulatory framework will look like in the years to come.