Crypto Rules Are Changing—But Congress Holds the Ultimate Power to Decide the Endgame

WASHINGTON—A closed-door meeting between Republican senators and a White House crypto adviser on Thursday has been described by participants as 'very productive,' signaling that Washington's long-stalled effort to overhaul digital asset oversight may finally be gaining critical momentum. The session marks a potential turning point in the legislative battle that will ultimately determine the regulatory framework governing cryptocurrencies in the United States.

Stablecoin Sticking Point Nears Resolution

A spokesperson for Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis confirmed the meeting with White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt, saying lawmakers are now “99% of the way there on stablecoin yield” — the thorny issue that has held up a broader market structure bill in the Senate Banking Committee for months.

Concerns over how stablecoin yield should be treated across the crypto and banking industries had effectively frozen progress. Based on reports from Lummis’ office, negotiations on the digital assets portion of the bill are also in good shape.

The bill, known as the CLARITY Act, cleared the House of Representatives back in July 2025. As of Thursday, it had not been scheduled for a markup hearing in the Senate Banking Committee. The Senate Agriculture Committee had already advanced its own version of the legislation in January.

SEC Draws A New Line On What Counts As A Security

The closed-door meeting came the same day SEC Chair Paul Atkins delivered prepared remarks at the Practising Law Institute in which he outlined a sharp departure from how his agency has handled crypto in the past.

Gone, he said, is the “regulation by enforcement” approach that defined the previous administration’s posture toward digital assets.

Earlier in the week, the agency published an interpretive notice laying out which crypto assets it considers securities and which it does not. The answer, under the new framework, is that most cryptocurrencies are not securities.

Only one category remains under SEC oversight: traditional securities that have been converted into token form. Digital commodities, digital tools, non-fungible tokens, and stablecoins were all identified as falling outside the agency’s reach.

Atkins was direct about the limits of what the agency had done. The interpretation, he said, is a “beginning, not an end.”

The SEC’s move follows a memorandum of understanding signed last week between the agency and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Under the expected market structure legislation, the CFTC would take on a larger role in regulating and overseeing digital assets — a shift the SEC appears willing to accept.

Atkins framed the interpretive notice as a necessary bridge while Congress works toward a permanent statutory framework. Administrative interpretations can be revised or reversed.

A law cannot be undone as easily. That distinction is why the Thursday meeting between senators and the White House carries weight beyond the usual Washington optics.

For an industry that spent years under threat of enforcement action, the week’s developments represent a visible change in direction from the country’s top securities regulator.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView