The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new rules intended to clarify how registered investment advisers and regulated funds can safeguard cryptocurrency, addressing a regulatory uncertainty that has made some professional firms reluctant to offer digital-asset strategies.
A clearer route for holding crypto
The proposal focuses on the “qualified custodian” requirement. Under existing rules, investment advisers must generally keep client assets with custodians that meet strict safekeeping standards. However, it has remained unclear which custody arrangements for crypto satisfy that requirement.
That uncertainty has been a significant obstacle for advisers and funds seeking to manage digital assets. The SEC’s proposed framework, developed under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Investment Company Act of 1940, is designed to establish a more specific compliance path.
The plan would allow crypto assets to be held through self-custody in certain circumstances. It would also permit state trust companies to act as custodians for cryptocurrency owned by clients and funds. In addition, the proposal would update requirements involving financial-statement audits for advisers and custodial services provided by broker-dealers to funds.
The agency said the broader aim is to expand investor access to crypto strategies by removing custody-related barriers that have kept some advisers from participating.
Part of a wider SEC crypto agenda
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said the cryptocurrency market had grown from a niche market after Bitcoin’s launch in 2008 into a multi-trillion-dollar asset class sought by investors. He argued that the agency’s rules had not developed at the same pace and described the proposal as an effort to replace uncertainty created by custody requirements designed for an earlier financial environment.
According to Decrypt, the custody proposal is part of the SEC’s wider regulatory programme following the stalling of the Clarity Act in the Senate. Other measures cited in the programme include an “innovation exemption” allowing tokenised stocks to trade on-chain and a proposed fundraising framework called Regulation Crypto Assets.
SEC staff have also clarified that token buybacks, by themselves, do not make a crypto asset a security. Taken together, these actions indicate that regulatory agencies are playing a larger role in shaping the sector while congressional legislation remains unresolved.
Proposal still subject to public comment
The custody framework is not yet final. A 60-day public comment period will begin after the proposal is published in the Federal Register. The SEC may change the rules after reviewing submissions, and the agency would still need to vote on whether to adopt them.
Until that process is complete, advisers, funds and custodians do not have a final set of new requirements to follow. The proposal’s significance therefore lies in the direction it sets: clearer rules for crypto custody, while leaving the details open to review.
Current crypto market picture
Moneyiar market data at 2026-10-03 09:28 +03:30 shows:
- Compound (COMP): $24.6444652029, up 0.47% over 24 hours and 3.47% over seven days.
- Aethir (ATH): $0.0071052994, up 14.06% over 24 hours and 9.21% over seven days.
- FUNToken (FUN): $0.0083992679, up 1.64% over 24 hours and 5.75% over seven days.
Moneyiar data for WOULD at 2026-09-22 21:04 +03:30 shows a price of $0.0351412837, up 0.33% over 24 hours and 10.6% over seven days.
