Trump regulators unveil joint Project Crypto initiative for digital assets
America’s financial markets are the strongest and most trusted in the world because they were built upon the premises of clear rules and fair enforcement.
Rather than adhere to these principles, the Biden administration chased headlines with flashy enforcement actions and instituted opaque rules that stifled progress. But thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump, America’s financial regulators are returning to the basic tenets that made our markets the envy of the world.
As new technologies reshape the financial services landscape, we must ensure that innovation thrives on American soil and under American law – in service of everyday Americans.
To that end, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are re-launching Project Crypto as a joint policy initiative to better prepare U.S. markets for the digital era.
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As markets move on-chain, regulators must keep pace. Congress is advancing bipartisan legislation to establish a federal framework for digital asset markets. But legislation alone cannot deliver the clarity that investors and market participants need. We must pair it with disciplined regulatory execution, grounded in merit neutrality and free market principles. These are outcomes that the SEC and CFTC are ready to meet to usher in a new era of coordinated and durable financial regulation.
We have designed Project Crypto to ensure that when Congress acts, the United States is ready to reinforce our global financial leadership. That includes sequencing – not stacking – new requirements through sensible implementation roadmaps; creating clear regulatory on-ramps for compliant participants; modernizing surveillance tools to reflect on-chain and hybrid market activity; and engaging transparently with new entrants, incumbents, investors and consumers alike.
We must act quickly to upgrade our rules and regulations to accommodate blockchain technology, digital assets and the legislation to come, or risk ceding these emerging markets to foreign regimes.
At its core, Project Crypto and our broader harmonization efforts reflect a shared philosophy: financial regulation must be precise, not punitive. Rules must be narrowly tailored to address material risks, nimble enough to adapt to technological change and remain anchored in our agencies’ statutory authorities. This principle guides our approach to registration, disclosure, market oversight, custody, clearing and surveillance in digital asset markets – while avoiding the reflex to impose ill-suited legacy structures on new technological realities.
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For too long, bureaucratic regulators have forced market participants to navigate boundaries that are unclear in application and misaligned in design, particularly where economically similar activities are treated differently based solely on legacy jurisdictional silos. This fragmentation is not merely inconvenient; it limits innovation and hampers investor opportunities.
In on-chain markets, where trading, clearing, settlement and custody are integrated, regulatory seams create friction that impairs risk management, margin efficiency and surveillance effectiveness. As markets move, on-chain and participation deepens, these distortions only compound.
Maintaining duplicative or conflicting requirements for the same economic activity undermines market resilience and regulatory clarity. The status quo cannot sustain U.S. dominance in 21st-century finance. Project Crypto aims to address — and, where possible, eliminate — these conflicts.
The SEC-CFTC harmonization agenda begins with fundamentals: aligned definitions, coordinated oversight, and seamless, secure data sharing between agencies. Market participants should not be saddled with duplicative agency registrations and sets of regulations in order to offer economically similar products that can be effectively regulated under a unified approach. Harmonization strengthens standards through coherence, predictability and economic rationality.
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We must act quickly to upgrade our rules and regulations to accommodate blockchain technology, digital assets and the legislation to come, or risk ceding these emerging markets to foreign regimes.
Project Crypto represents a modern model of inter-agency coordination, recognizing that today’s markets do not conform to 20th-century silos. The SEC and CFTC bring complementary statutory mandates, supervisory capabilities and market expertise. Acting in concert, these capabilities become symbiotic rather than duplicative, delivering clarity and principled oversight as market structures evolve.
The stakes are high. Global jurisdictions compete aggressively to attract digital asset activity – some prioritizing speed over safeguards, others imposing rigidity that stifles growth. America’s advantage has always been its ability to balance both.
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If we fail to provide clarity, innovation migrates elsewhere. If we regulate with a heavy hand, we do not reduce risk, we encourage it. Project Crypto reflects our shared belief that the United States can lead by doing what it has always done best: pairing strong rule of law with an openness to progress.
The future of finance will be built somewhere. Through Project Crypto, and disciplined, harmonized, minimum-effective-dose regulation, we ensure that it is built here, under rules that protect investors, promote innovation and cement America’s leadership in the global financial system.
Michael S. Selig is chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
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