The US SEC promotes Project Crypto, reshaping the global digital finance landscape.

Recently, the Chairman of the U.S. SEC, Paul S. Atkins, officially announced the launch of the "Project Crypto" initiative during a public speech in Washington, aiming to make the United States a leader in global digital assets. This speech not only serves as a barometer of the SEC's policy shift but also signals America's ambition to regain its voice in the global fintech competition.

In recent years, the regulation of digital assets in the United States has been ambiguous and even hostile. However, the Project Crypto proposed in this speech marks the SEC's proactive embrace of blockchain innovation, promoting the capital market towards on-chain development. This move not only responds to the long-standing calls for a clear regulatory framework from the market but also provides strong support for the return of the industrial chain to the United States and compliance innovation.

##Regulatory New Policy: From "Suppression" to "Empowerment" The SEC chairman emphasized that the past practice of "enforcement instead of regulation" has led to a large number of crypto projects going overseas, a lack of investor confidence, and a constrained innovation environment. The launch of Project Crypto aims to rectify this issue by establishing clear classification standards (such as: digital goods, stablecoins, digital securities, etc.) to provide market participants with a clear and actionable compliance pathway.

It is worth noting that the SEC plans to introduce registration exemption provisions tailored for the crypto market, a Safe Harbor policy, an Innovation Exemption mechanism, and allow common distribution forms such as "airdrops" and "network incentives" to operate under reasonable regulation. This idea of "conditional tolerance" is expected to greatly reduce the compliance costs for startup projects.

##The New U.S. Strategy: Institutional Designers of On-chain Finance The speech repeatedly mentioned the GENIUS Act and the digital asset market structure report released by the PWG (Presidential Working Group), indicating that Project Crypto is not an isolated policy, but a key step in the federal government's promotion of financial on-chain operations. The SEC will collaborate with Congress to establish a new regulatory framework for various aspects of on-chain transactions, custody, clearing, and issuance.

For example, in the area of tokenized securities, the SEC will support exchanges and brokers in the issuance and circulation of tokenized stocks, bonds, and fund shares. For DeFi (decentralized finance) systems that do not require intermediaries, the SEC has also committed to clearly defining the boundaries of those that are unregulated or enjoy publisher exemptions. This "two-track parallel" approach greatly expands the institutional inclusiveness of on-chain finance.

##Balancing Investor Protection and Innovation The SEC's shift this time does not signify a complete abandonment of regulation, but rather emphasizes the principles of "precision, lightweight, and technology neutrality." For example, regarding custody services and trading platforms, the SEC will update custody rules applicable to digital assets and promote the legalization of the "Super-App" architecture, allowing services such as trading, custody, lending, and staking to operate in an integrated manner under one license.

The SEC chairman emphasized that the core values of the United States are freedom of choice and property protection, and therefore, the rights of users to self-custody, use on-chain wallets, and participate in staking must be respected. At the same time, he pointed out that regulation should avoid unnecessary duplication, especially by providing a relatively lighter regulatory pathway for small and medium-sized enterprises and innovators to prevent "financial oligopoly" caused by excessive compliance.

##Global Landscape: The U.S. Reclaims Discourse Power The strategic significance of this speech goes far beyond American soil. The speech stated that the United States must take the initiative to lead rather than passively adapt to global changes in crypto finance, or it will miss the opportunity to dominate the next financial era. The SEC will be committed to guiding the global market "operating on American technology," which is a concentrated embodiment of the United States' desire to export fintech rules, technological standards, and capital attractiveness.

It is foreseeable that as Project Crypto progresses, the United States will gradually establish a competitive regulatory standard system in areas such as stablecoins, token securities, DeFi, on-chain settlement, and Web3 financial infrastructure, attracting global projects to re-register "onshore."

##Summary: A Signal of Institutional-Level Transformation This speech can be regarded as the most positive and systematic statement by the SEC regarding digital finance in decades. The launch of Project Crypto not only serves to "legitimize" the blockchain industry but also signifies that the United States is about to transition from being a "laggard" in crypto regulation to becoming a global institutional designer and market leader.

For developers, project parties, and investors, paying attention to the SEC's next steps in policy implementation and the formulation of supporting regulations will become an important reference for assessing medium- and long-term strategic layouts. For the global cryptocurrency industry, a comprehensive regulatory adjustment in the United States may once again reshape the market landscape, triggering a wave of "on-chain migration."