The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has quietly removed cryptocurrency from its annual examination priorities for the first time in years, signaling a dramatic shift in the agency's approach to digital asset oversight under the Trump administration.
The SEC's Division of Examinations released its 2026 examination priorities on Monday, focusing on core areas such as fiduciary duty, standards of conduct, and the custody rule while making no specific mention of crypto or digital assets. The agency will instead examine compliance with new regulations including the 2024 amendments to Regulation S-P, which governs the safeguarding of customer information.
The omission marks a stark departure from previous years. Under former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the agency explicitly highlighted the offer, sale, trading, and advisory activity around crypto assets in its 2025 priorities, with spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs directly named as areas of focus. The Division of Examinations had pledged close monitoring of firms offering crypto-related services, stating it would continue to examine registrants given the volatility in crypto markets.
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins framed the new priorities as part of a more cooperative approach to regulation. "Examinations are an important component to accomplishing the agency's mission, but they should not be a 'gotcha' exercise," Atkins said in a statement. "Today's release of examination priorities should enable firms to prepare to have a constructive dialogue with SEC examiners and provide transparency into the priorities of the agency's most public-facing division."
The 15-page document emphasizes several key areas for fiscal year 2026. The SEC will prioritize information security, including ransomware preparedness, AI-related cyber risks, identity-theft prevention under Regulation S-ID, and readiness for updated Regulation S-P requirements. The agency also flagged risks associated with emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and automated investment tools, as areas where it will scrutinize whether firms' controls match their disclosures and deliver suitable recommendations.
The SEC clarified that its stated priorities are "not exhaustive," leaving open the possibility that digital-asset firms may still be scrutinized through other examination lenses. However, the complete absence of cryptocurrency from the document represents what industry observers view as a meaningful signal about the agency's direction.
A Pro-Crypto Administration Takes Shape
The shift aligns with the broader pro-crypto direction seen under President Donald Trump, whose administration has been active in deregulating the sector while his family has expanded their footprint into crypto with a trading platform, mining business, stablecoin, and token.
Atkins, who took office in April, declared at an early SEC roundtable that crypto innovation "has been stifled for the last several years" and that changes were sorely needed. Since then, the agency has rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, a rule established under Gensler that treated crypto holdings as balance sheet liabilities for banks and effectively blocked institutional adoption. The SEC also issued guidance indicating it does not deem most meme coins securities under federal law.
In November, Atkins outlined the SEC's "Project Crypto" initiative at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, announcing plans to establish a "token taxonomy" that would provide clearer classification for digital assets. The framework would distinguish between tokens that qualify as securities and those that do not, potentially resolving years of regulatory uncertainty that forced many crypto companies to operate offshore.
Atkins emphasized that cryptocurrencies can be part of an investment contract but won't necessarily remain that way permanently, acknowledging that networks mature, code ships, control disperses, and issuers' roles diminish over time.
Regulatory Uncertainty Persists Despite Softer Stance
While the examination priorities suggest lighter touch oversight, experts caution that regulatory uncertainty remains far from resolved. The crypto industry still faces overlapping jurisdictions between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, creating compliance challenges for firms unsure which agency governs their activities.
Congress is working to address this through legislation. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 passed the House in July with bipartisan support, establishing clear jurisdictional boundaries between the SEC and CFTC while creating tailored registration and compliance regimes for digital asset intermediaries. The bill defines "digital commodities" as assets intrinsically linked to blockchain systems, granting the CFTC exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over these products while preserving SEC authority over investment contracts.
The CLARITY Act would establish three new registration categories under CFTC jurisdiction: Digital Commodity Exchanges, Digital Commodity Brokers, and Digital Commodity Dealers, roughly analogous to existing frameworks for futures markets. The legislation now awaits Senate consideration.
International compliance obligations also loom. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework requires crypto service providers in 69 participating jurisdictions to collect detailed customer information and report annually to tax authorities, with first exchanges expected to commence in 2027.
SEC Scales Back Shareholder Proposal Reviews
In a separate development affecting corporate governance, the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance announced significant changes to how it handles shareholder proposals under Rule 14a-8.
Due to resource constraints following the 43-day federal government shutdown and a large backlog of filings, the Division will not respond to most no-action requests for the 2025-2026 proxy season. It will only review requests under Rule 14a-8(i)(1), which covers proposals that are not proper subjects for shareholder action under state law.
For other exclusion bases, companies can submit notifications with a representation that they have reasonable grounds to exclude proposals, but the SEC will not evaluate the reasoning or express views on the merits. This effectively shifts responsibility to issuers to assess and document their own exclusion decisions.
The government shutdown, which ended November 12 when President Trump signed a funding bill, was the longest in U.S. history at 43 days, causing widespread disruptions including flight cancellations and delayed food assistance for more than 42 million Americans.
Final thoughts
The removal of a dedicated crypto section from examination priorities shows crypto is moving toward regulatory normalcy, where digital assets are treated like traditional financial products rather than high-risk outliers requiring special scrutiny.
However, analysts warn the absence of crypto on the priority list does not mean the industry is risk-free or beyond regulatory reach. The SEC can continue examining firms based on their particular risk profiles, meaning digital-asset companies remain within the agency's oversight perimeter even if no longer at the top of its stated agenda.
For now, the crypto industry appears to have gained breathing room under an administration eager to position the United States as a global leader in digital asset innovation. Whether that translates to sustainable growth or simply deferred regulatory reckoning will depend on how Congress, the courts, and future administrations shape the rules still being written.