Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Paul Atkinson, recently revealed that the U.S. will implement "massive" crypto regulatory adjustments in 2026. This signal has sparked considerable discussion in the market and is widely understood as an important sign that digital asset policies are about to undergo a transformation.

Looking at the past few years, U.S. crypto regulation has mainly focused on enforcement, which to some extent has limited the space for technological innovation and led some crypto companies to shift to other markets. Atkinson stated that the SEC's strategy will shift toward a more constructive direction—replacing vague regulatory boundaries with clear rules so that practitioners can see the specific path to compliance.

The significance of this shift is that exchanges, custodians, blockchain projects, and traditional financial institutions can all develop long-term plans within a clear framework. Industry insiders believe that this "loosening" is not an unconditional relaxation but a move from disorderly uncertainty to a regulated framework with institutional rules. Once the rules are clear, the cost for institutional capital to enter will drop significantly. This could bring new growth opportunities for sectors like Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and real-world asset tokenization.

More interestingly, the change in SEC attitude resonates with the legislative work promoted by Congress. Regulatory agencies and legislative bodies are working together, which is expected to create a more favorable policy environment for spot ETFs, on-chain financial products, and cross-chain infrastructure. From this perspective, 2026 is likely to become a turning point for the U.S. crypto industry, transitioning from exploration to regulation and from niche to mainstream.