TL;DR:
- Temporary registration exemptions: The plan, provisionally known as “Regulation Crypto,” contemplates providing developers with a registration exemption period when launching digital asset investment contracts.
- Specific fundraising limits: According to the commission’s agenda, the regulation would allow funding schemes with established limits of up to $5 million for startups and $75 million annually for advanced stages.
- Creation of a safe harbor: The proposal includes a legal protection mechanism or “safe harbor” for issuers who cease to exert direct management efforts over the crypto assets.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing a new crypto regulation proposal scheduled to be officially presented before the end of July, aiming to ease compliance requirements for startups in the digital asset sector.
This initiative seeks to mitigate the administrative barriers faced by developers during their initial fundraising stages.
A New Framework for Crypto Capital Raising
The technical details of the SEC’s updated agenda indicate that the project, provisionally named “Regulation Crypto,” would introduce structural reforms in the oversight of blockchain-based investment contracts. A market report indicates that the plan proposes a transition period so that technological projects can mature operationally before fully submitting to federal securities regulations.
Institutional documentation disclosed in July 2026 reveals that the agency plans to implement an exemption for startups with a maximum duration of up to four years. SEC data suggests that under this scheme, firms could raise a maximum of $5 million by publishing simplified information prospectuses on publicly accessible web portals.
For more consolidated financing phases, the entity’s reports outline an expanded fundraising exemption. The technical parameters evaluated by the agency would allow raising up to $75 million within 12-month periods, provided that audited balance sheets and statements regarding the issuer’s financial condition are presented.
Legal Protection and Protocol Decentralization
A central element of the regulation focuses on establishing a clear definition of when a digital asset ceases to be considered an investment contract. Guidelines presented by SEC Chairman Paul Atkins indicate that a definitive safe harbor will be enabled for issuers who complete or transition away from centralized management efforts over the networks.
The application of this rule seeks to offer legal certainty to secondary markets where these tokens are traded. According to the current trend observed in the commission’s documents, this measure will provide market participants with an objective standard to determine that a crypto asset no longer falls within the perimeter of U.S. federal securities laws.
The progress of this project follows the publication earlier this year of the SEC’s first official digital asset taxonomy, a document that separated crypto assets from traditional investment structures. Although the proposal is currently under review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the regulator’s intention is to open the text for public comment before the end of the current quarter.
The development of this sector-specific regulation by the SEC coincides with attempts to advance the CLARITY Act in the U.S. Congress, which is designed to permanently codify the legal status of decentralized finance platforms.
