SEC Chair Paul Atkins told CNBC that the agency will move ahead on rules for raising capital onchain even though the CLARITY Act failed to pass Congress. In an interview flagged by CoinMarketCap on September 30, 2026, Atkins said that "even though the CLARITY Act failed in Congress," the SEC is "proceeding to provide clarity" on how to raise money onchain. The message is that the regulator no longer plans to wait for legislation to act.
Regulator opts for its own path
The comment reframes how US crypto rules may arrive. The CLARITY Act was the market structure bill meant to divide oversight of digital assets between the SEC and the CFTC and set the terms for token sales. Its failure in Congress left a gap that many issuers assumed would freeze federal action. Atkins is signaling the opposite: the SEC intends to fill that gap through its own administrative channels rather than a statute.
That distinction matters. Legislation binds future administrations and is difficult to reverse. Guidance, no-action relief, and rulemaking from an agency are faster to produce but also easier for a later chair to withdraw or rewrite. Companies deciding whether to raise money through a token offering in the US now face a framework that could shift with agency leadership rather than one anchored in law.
Capital raising is the specific target
Atkins pointed at one function in particular: how to raise money onchain. That covers token sales, onchain securities offerings, and the mechanics of issuing an asset directly to investors through a blockchain rather than a traditional prospectus and transfer agent. It is the piece of the market that has drawn the most enforcement friction over the past several years, since regulators and issuers have disagreed on when a token sale is a securities offering.
Providing clarity here would give founders a defined route to sell tokens without guessing whether the SEC will later call the sale an unregistered securities offering. The exact form is not spelled out in the interview. It could arrive as a new exemption, a registration pathway tuned for onchain issuance, or staff guidance describing conditions the agency will not challenge. Atkins described intent, not a finished rule, so the specifics remain open until the SEC publishes something.
Continuation of a policy shift
The remark fits a run of recent moves at the agency that read more accommodating toward crypto. SEC staff have issued a series of statements narrowing where the Howey test applies, including guidance that some token buybacks tied to network development may not trigger securities treatment. The agency also lost one of its most prominent internal crypto advocates when Commissioner Hester Peirce stepped down, which raised questions about who would carry that agenda forward.
Congress has not been idle in the eyes of the White House either. When the CLARITY Act stalled, the administration pinned the blame on Democrats rather than treating the bill as dead policy. Atkins choosing to act through the SEC sidesteps that standoff. It puts the timeline in the agency's hands instead of a divided legislature.
Crypto prices did not show an immediate reaction to the interview. Bitcoin traded at $83,304, up 0.5 percent on the day as of September 30, 2026, while Ether sat at $2,667 and the Fear and Greed index read 67, in "Greed" territory. The comment is a policy signal about process, not a market-moving data point, so the muted price response fits.
Practical read for issuers
For a founder weighing where to launch a token, the takeaway is that a US path may open through rulemaking sooner than a statutory one. That path carries a caveat: rules made by an agency can be unmade by the next chair, so any framework Atkins delivers will lack the durability of a law. Anyone building around it should treat the current posture as the operative rule while watching for the actual published text, which will define the conditions that matter.
Stablecoin issuers, exchanges, and card programs that route US dollars and tokens for American users all depend on how capital formation gets regulated, since it sets which projects can legally operate stateside. A defined onchain fundraising route would widen the field of compliant issuers those businesses can work with. Until the SEC puts a document on the table, though, the clarity Atkins promised is a stated direction rather than an enforceable rule.
Overview
Atkins told CNBC the SEC will proceed to clarify onchain capital raising despite the CLARITY Act's failure in Congress, choosing agency rulemaking over legislation. The move is faster but less durable than a statute, targets token sales and onchain offerings specifically, and continues a broader softening in the agency's crypto posture. No rule text exists yet, so the promise is direction, not law.
