New SEC Chairman Announces: U.S. Markets to Be Fully On-Chain Within Two Years

[Chain News] Recently, I saw a live segment on Fox News where the new SEC Chairman, Paul Atkins, dropped a bombshell on camera—a bold viewpoint that the US market will achieve full on-chain integration within two years.

Coming from the head of a regulatory agency, these words carry significant weight. You have to know that the SEC’s attitude toward the crypto industry has been quite nuanced over the past few years. The previous chairman, Gensler, had an approach of “sue first, ask questions later,” which caused a lot of headaches for the entire industry. Now, the new chairman is directly laying out a timeline: moving the traditional financial market onto the blockchain within two years. That’s a pretty dramatic shift.

Of course, what exactly does “full on-chain integration” mean? Does it refer to securities exchanges’ settlement systems adopting blockchain technology? Or the tokenization of traditional assets like stocks and bonds? Or perhaps an even more radical idea—having the entire capital market infrastructure run on public blockchains?

No matter the specific path, at the very least, this sends a clear signal: US regulators are starting to seriously consider moving blockchain from “fringe experiment” to “mainstream infrastructure.” Two years isn’t a long time, but when it comes to transforming the traditional financial system, that pace is already quite aggressive.

Next, we’ll have to see if the SEC can come up with supporting policy frameworks, and whether the old guard on Wall Street is willing to cooperate.