Overview
- The SEC submitted its draft “Amendments to the Custody Rules” to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for executive review on Aug. 25, 2026, starting a confidential pre-publication process.
- The proposal would update custody rules under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Investment Company Act of 1940 to clarify how advisers and funds may hold crypto assets for clients.
- OIRA can request changes to the draft before it returns to the SEC, and commissioners must vote to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking that will open a public comment period.
- If finalized, the rule—designated economically significant—could change which banks, federal trust banks, state trust companies, and crypto custodians qualify to hold client assets and could alter compliance costs for advisers and smaller firms.
- The custody rewrite is part of Chair Paul Atkins’s broader shift from enforcement to formal rulemaking on crypto and arrives while Congress continues work on the CLARITY market-structure bill, creating possible overlaps in authority and timing.