SEC Chair Confirms ‘Very Few’ Cryptos Are Securities, But Markets Continue to Correct

Securities and Exchange Commission chair Paul Atkins has confirmed a major shift in crypto regulation, stating that “very few tokens” should be classified as securities.

His comments, which are a stark contrast to his predecessor Gary Gensler’s view that the vast majority of crypto assets were securities, came at the SALT Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2025 on Tuesday.

Sporting an orange tie, Atkins said the SEC’s “Project Crypto,” which aims to establish rules on such assets, may affect how the agency addresses companies moving forward.

“We can not go about looking at oranges [tokens] themselves as necessarily being a security,” he said before adding, “from the SEC’s perspective, we will plow forward on the idea that the token itself is not necessarily a security.”

“There are very few, in my mind, tokens that are securities.”

Moving Forward on Crypto Regulations

“The President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets released clear recommendations for the SEC — and we’re setting out to implement them as soon as we can,” said Atkins on X following the conference.

I had a great conversation with @TeresaGoody at @SALTConference’s Wyoming Blockchain Symposium today about my priorities as @SECgov chairman, including Project Crypto and making IPOs great again. It’s a new day at the SEC.

Thread ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/I7UIrjQFpT

— Paul Atkins (@SECPaulSAtkins) August 19, 2025

The agency plans to move forward independently while Congress considers broader market structure legislation.

Atkins also praised the recently passed GENIUS Act stablecoin regulations, stating it was a “seminal step for the US Congress and government.”

However, he also said there was a lot of “spring cleaning to do at the SEC,” following years of regulation by enforcement by the previous administration.

In related news, the former Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council under President Trump, Robert Hines, has been appointed by stablecoin issuer Tether as its new advisor.

Crypto Market Correction Deepens

The crypto market pullback has deepened despite the latest positive move from US financial regulators. Total market capitalization has tanked a further 2.3% on the day to $3.87 trillion, its lowest level for a fortnight.

Bitcoin led the losses with a 2.7% dump to bottom out at $112,650 during early trading in Asia on Wednesday. The asset recovered to the $113,500 level at the time of writing, but was 8.5% down from its peak last week and was looking at further losses.

Ethereum had wiped out last week’s gains in a fall below $4,100 on Wednesday morning as markets continued to melt down.

Altcoin losses were not as severe, but they were mostly in the red at the time of writing.