Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul S. Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael S. Selig appeared together at CFTC headquarters in Washington, where they said their agencies have begun coordinating on a new effort known as “Project Crypto.”
The initiative aims to narrow long-standing gaps between the two regulators in definitions, jurisdiction, and compliance obligations for digital assets. Both chairmen linked the work to President Donald Trump’s stated objective of making the United States the world’s leading center for crypto activity.
“For too long, market participants have been forced to navigate regulatory boundaries that are unclear in application and misaligned in design,” Atkins and Selig said in a joint statement. The pair said the goal is to make sure innovation develops “on American soil, under American law.”
Project Crypto and a New Digital-Asset Taxonomy
Selig stated that the staff at the CFTC and SEC are now focused on developing a more detailed taxonomy that differentiates between digital commodities, digital collectibles, and functional blockchain technology, on the one hand, and those that need to be treated as securities, even in the context of investment-style models, on the other.
In the near term, the agencies are considering whether some aspects of this framework can be jointly codified while Congress works on broader market-structure legislation.
Atkins stated that years of divided oversight have created additional costs and uncertainties for firms operating in crypto, securities, and derivatives markets.
“The turf war of years gone by must give way to a new era of cooperation,” he stated.
The development comes as Congress nears a bipartisan bill to establish a federal framework for digital asset markets. Nevertheless, regulators have made it clear they will not wait for Congress to act.
The areas under consideration include tokenized collateral, leveraged and margined crypto trading, and newer derivatives such as perpetual futures.
For industry players, the development indicates that the regulatory deadlock that has characterized much of the past years is coming to an end. Industry players will likely see Project Crypto as the first sign that the regulatory framework may become easier to navigate, even if rulemaking is still pending.
According to the officials, coordination does not mean that they will scale back enforcement. Investor protection and market integrity will still be at the forefront. The only difference is that the future of crypto regulation will be determined jointly, rather than in silos.
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