SEC Schedules Rulemaking Meeting on Crypto Fundraising, Custody

The SEC has scheduled a meeting for this month to begin drafting rules that would define how crypto companies raise money, how exchanges operate, and how custodians hold digital assets.

The meeting, led by Chairman Paul Atkins, follows his statement that the agency is working with the White House to make the US “the crypto capital of the world.” The agenda covers two main rule areas.

First, new safe harbors would create legal pathways for token sales, including ICOs, staking rewards, and airdrops. Exemptions would allow companies to raise funds without registering the tokens as securities, provided they meet disclosure and reporting conditions.

Second, exchanges and broker-dealers would face updated capital requirements and insolvency rules. The SEC plans to rewrite recordkeeping standards and set minimum liquid capital for trading venues, including alternative trading systems like Securitize Markets. A separate proposal would legalize institutional on-chain custody of real-world assets, subject to compliance conditions.

The meeting also covers two broader issues. The agency will discuss how tokens can move from the “security” category once their underlying networks become sufficiently decentralized. And coders building decentralized finance platforms would be exempt from broker-dealer registration if they do not execute trades on those platforms.