SEC Unveils Project Crypto to Bring U.S. Markets Onchain - Unchained

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has unveiled a new initiative to modernize securities rules around digital assets dubbed “Project Crypto,” with the goal of bringing U.S. financial markets onchain.

The SEC said it will draft “clear and simple rules of the road” for crypto asset distribution, custody, and trading, moving away from legacy rules that have been considered outdated and ill-suited for digital assets.

The initiative supports the emergence of “super-apps” — platforms that would allow broker-dealers to offer a broad suite of financial products, including tokens, staking, and lending, under a single license. Effectively, that would replace the costly and complex web of state-by-state regulations.

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Project Crypto also proposes updated rules that allow both tokenized securities and non-security crypto assets to trade side-by-side on regulated, onchain platforms.

“Many of the Commission’s legacy rules and regulations do not make sense in the twenty-first century—let alone for on-chain markets,” said SEC Chair Paul Atkins.

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of VC firm Dragonfly, wrote on X, “The SEC’s new ‘Project Crypto’ is the most bullish thing I’ve seen in a long time from a regulator.”