SEC Chair Atkins pushes 'innovation exemption' to fast-track crypto products to be put in place by year's end

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is working full steam ahead as lawmakers hash out how to regulate digital assets, with plans to put an "innovation exemption" in place by the end of the year, allowing crypto products to launch quickly, said the regulator's chair Paul Atkins.

On Tuesday, Atkins said the agency is moving forward with crypto-related rulemaking and noted the securities regulator had a lot going on.

"We're looking for an innovation exemption to try to get that in place by year's end, " Atkins said in an interview with "Mornings with Maria" on Fox Business.

Since taking his position as chair in April, Atkins has taken several steps to become significantly more friendly toward the crypto industry. In June, Atkins said he had directed his staff to consider an "innovation exemption" that he said would quickly allow firms to "bring on-chain products and services to market." He has also embarked on an initiative called "Project Crypto" to modernize the agency's existing rules around digital assets.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington passed their first crypto-specific bill covering stablecoins and have now set their sights on regulating the crypto industry at large. Currently, the House and Senate have separate versions of a crypto market structure bill that would need to eventually come together into one version. Earlier Tuesday, Patrick Witt, the executive director of the White House Council of Advisors on Digital Assets, said he expected a crypto market structure bill to pass before the end of the year.

Atkins said he was "looking forward to Congress acting on" the crypto market structure bill.

Atkins was also asked about his thoughts on combining the SEC with its sister agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That idea had been floating on social media on Monday.

"My hands are full right now, and we are working hand in glove right now with the CFTC," Atkins said. "So harmonization is what I really envision."

Both agencies will hold a roundtable next week to discuss bringing "novel and innovative products" back to the U.S.