Overview
- The SEC released a draft Strategic Plan this week that for the first time lists digital assets, tokenization, and distributed ledger technology as a standalone objective to guide agency work through 2030.
- The plan promises a “rational, coherent, and principled” regulatory foundation that seeks to enable compliant tokenized offerings and on‑chain capital formation while preventing overlapping rules for custody, trading, and staking services.
- The agency highlighted coordination with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a top task and pointed to a March memorandum of understanding the two agencies signed to improve information sharing and joint oversight.
- Recent policy moves under Chair Paul Atkins that frame the plan include the May rescission of the SEC’s long‑standing “no‑deny” settlement policy and the agency’s decision to delay a proposed innovation exemption for tokenized stock trading after exchanges raised questions about shareholder rights and recordkeeping.
- Congress is advancing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which cleared the Senate Banking Committee and would shift large parts of digital‑asset oversight to the CFTC, meaning the SEC’s draft will interact with fast‑moving legislation as the rules are written.