La SEC analiza una solución de la década de 1990 para los criptomercados para permitir una verdadera "vía de innovación"
Burns Brief
En un discurso del 8 de mayo, el presidente de la SEC, Paul Atkins, dijo que la agencia podría considerar una “vía de innovación” limitada para los sistemas de comercio en cadena en el futuro cercano. El sentimiento del mercado se está volviendo positivo, y los comerciantes y analistas señalan un posible impulso de seguimiento en las próximas sesiones. Esté atento a la reacción de $MATIC $NEAR: un movimiento decisivo por encima o por debajo de niveles clave confirmará la próxima tendencia.
In a May 8 speech, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency could consider a limited “innovation pathway” for on-chain trading systems in the near future. Meanwhile, the agency will reserve formal notice-and-comment rulemaking to determine how crypto platforms fit inside the exchange definition. Atkins tied that idea directly to the SEC's handling of electronic trading in the 1990s. The SEC spent years issuing ad hoc no-action letters as electronic trading challenged the exchange framework, then built Regulation ATS in 1998. The rule was a middle path that allowed alternative trading systems to operate as broker-dealers under specific conditions as the market matured. The original adopting release described the framework as designed to “encourage market innovation” while preserving investor protections. Atkins is pointing at that sequence of targeted guidance first, fit-for-purpose architecture second, as a template for on-chain finance. The two-step reading makes the speech different from generic crypto-policy rhetoric. Atkins appears to be preparing the SEC to allow certain on-chain trading systems to operate inside the regulatory perimeter under conditions, while a longer rulemaking process settles how exchange, broker-dealer, clearing, and transfer-agent definitions apply to software-based markets . For crypto firms that spent years facing enforcement before rules existed, that sequence would represent a genuine departure from recent agency posture. A five-step timeline traces the SEC's regulatory path from 1990s electronic trading through Regulation ATS to Atkins' proposed on-chain innovation pathway. Why on-chain markets force a new architecture Traditional SEC rules were built around separate actors performing separate regulated functions, such as exchanges matching orders, broker-dealers routing and executing them, clearing agencies settling them, and transfer agents recording ownership. A single on-chain protocol can perform all of those functions automaticall
Key Takeaways
- In a May 8 speech, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency could consider a limited “innovation pathway” for on-chain trading systems in the near future
- Meanwhile, the agency will reserve formal notice-and-comment rulemaking to determine how crypto platforms fit inside the exchange definition
- Atkins tied that idea directly to the SEC's handling of electronic trading in the 1990s
- The SEC spent years issuing ad hoc no-action letters as electronic trading challenged the exchange framework, then built Regulation ATS in 1998
- The rule was a middle path that allowed alternative trading systems to operate as broker-dealers under specific conditions as the market matured