SEC Chair Paul Atkins Chairs Meeting Of SEC Crypto Task Force

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SEC Chairman Paul Atkins announces new agenda for the crypto industry

The supply of stablecoins on ethereum has reached a record high of $150 billion.

9/4/25 2:43PM

On Thursday, US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins announced a new agenda at the agency tasked with protecting investors from misconduct in securities markets.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs released the new agenda, titled “Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions,” covering potential rule proposals related to the crypto industry.

Aiming to provide clarity on the issuance, custody, and trading of digital assets, the document “also covers a number of envisioned deregulatory rule proposals to reduce compliance burdens and facilitate capital formation, including by simplifying pathways for raising capital and investor access to private businesses,” Atkins said in a statement.

The announcement comes as ethereum’s supply of stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to the US dollar, has climbed to an all-time high of $150 billion, an over 34% increase this year, data from DefiLlama shows. Year to date, the price of ethereum has increased almost 30%, but in the last 24 hours, the token has dropped 4% to trade at the $4,310 level.

In other ethereum news:

Ethereum’s monthly and weekly spot volume on centralized exchanges has overtaken bitcoin’s for the first time in more than seven years, The Block reported on Thursday. Last month, centralized exchanges notched about $480 billion in trading volume for ethereum, while bitcoin saw $401 billion.
Ethereum’s entrance queue to start staking has risen to 819,797 tokens worth $3.5 billion, bringing the wait time to 14 days and 6 hours, a figure that surpasses the network’s exit queue, which reached an all-time high in the previous month. The last time ethereum’s staking entrance line was over 800,000 tokens was in September 2023, per analytics dashboard Validator Queue.
Meanwhile, US spot ethereum ETFs have recorded three consecutive days of outflows, with Wednesday seeing $38 million leave the investment funds. Ethereum’s outflows come as spot bitcoin ETFs have started seeing inflows again after a brutal August.

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Bitcoin ETFs reverted to outflows and bitcoin suffered $192 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours.

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Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, puts plans for IPO on hold

Payward, crypto exchange Kraken’s parent company, has paused its plans for an initial public offering until market conditions improve, according to a report from CoinDesk that cited two people with knowledge of the matter.

Since the firm announced in November its preparation for an IPO of its common stock, the total market capitalization of the crypto industry has shed around $652.2 billion, from $3.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion as of Wednesday, data from CoinGecko shows.

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions.

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

Payward, parent of crypto exchange Kraken, has put its IPO plans on hold

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

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SEC and CFTC issue new guidance on how securities laws apply to crypto assets

On Tuesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, together with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, issued an interpretation clarifying how federal securities law applies to crypto assets, a first step toward developing a clearer regulatory framework.

The interpretive guidance introduces a token taxonomy for different types of cryptocurrencies, with SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins adding that “most crypto assets are not themselves securities.”

Examples of a digital commodity, “a crypto asset that is intrinsically linked to and derives its value from the programmatic operation of a crypto system that is ‘functional,’” include:

Aptos, avalanche, bitcoin, bitcoin cash, cardano, chainlink, dogecoin, ethereum, hedera, litecoin, polkadot, shiba inu, solana, stellar, tezos, and XRP.

The guidance also includes definitions of digital collectibles (such as NFTs), stablecoins, digital tools, and digital securities (such as tokenized real-world assets and stocks).

This is a monumental step in the mainstream adoption of the industry and clears a hurdle in how crypto can operate going forward, according to David Pakman, head of venture investments at CoinFund. “This will allow new token designs with the confidence that their existence does not require registration with the SEC, etc.,” Pakman told Sherwood News.

Despite the clarification efforts from the two organizations, the market capitalization of the crypto industry has dropped about 2% in the last 24 hours as each of the tokens mentioned in the guidance are trading lower in the period, data from CoinGecko shows.

The joint agency action also complements congressional efforts to turn a crypto market structure framework into law. With the goal of providing regulations on the offer and sale of digital commodities, the CLARITY Act passed the House of Representatives last year and is now sitting in the Senate.

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Citi analysts cut 12-month bitcoin projection to $112,000 from $143,000

The analysts’ bear-case scenario is $57,537, based on “recessionary macro-factors, especially weak equity markets,” which could cause ETF flows to stall.

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Bitcoin sees 8 consecutive days of gains, a streak not seen in 4 years

Bitcoin is on a winning streak. The cryptocurrency has generated eight straight days of positive returns, a rare phenomenon that has occurred only 15 times since Satoshi Nakamoto created it, according to a CoinDesk report.

In the 30 days after posting an eight-day streak, bitcoin traded higher nine times and lower six times. The median return in the period is roughly 19%. Despite the historical gains that followed, the last time bitcoin had such a rally, four years ago, it dropped roughly 30%.

Most recently, bitcoin climbed from below $66,000 on March 8 to over $75,000 yesterday before settling around $73,800 on Tuesday morning.

Traders remain modestly bullish on the likelihood of further gains, though the sentiment is fading: prediction market-implied odds of bitcoin trading above $77,500 in the month stand at 54%, a decrease from 73% on Monday.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Bitcoin hits rare 8-day winning streak – but 2022 bear market saw one too