Press Release: 4/28/2026
Warren, Van Hollen Press SEC Chair Atkins on Exempting Broad Swaths of Crypto Market from American Securities Laws
You have also promised that further exemptions are on their way, raising alarm in the financial industry”
“As Congress continues to consider crypto market structure legislation, it must close the loopholes that would allow market participants to easily escape the securities laws using crypto.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), sent a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins, expressing concerns over a recent SEC interpretive release that grants sweeping exemptions from federal securities laws to broad categories of crypto assets which would undermine decades of investor protections and appears designed to benefit the crypto industry — including the Trump family — at the expense of ordinary American investors.
The senators’ letter follows SEC Chairman Atkins’ promise that further exemptions are on their way and warnings from the financial industry that broad exemptive relief sought by the crypto industry could introduce “a host of potential cybersecurity risks,” “illicit protocols” that “harm investors,” and “flash crashes and other bouts of severe volatility.” The senators called on Congress to close the loopholes that would allow market participants to easily escape the securities laws using crypto as it considers crypto market structure legislation.
“As SEC Chairman, you have made clear that you intend to provide ‘crypto innovators [with] bespoke pathways to raise capital in the U.S.’ and make America the ‘crypto capital of the world.’ It appears that you plan to work towards this goal by exempting most cryptocurrencies from the securities laws—with significant potential harm to and implications for investors and our financial markets,” wrote the senators.
The SEC’s interpretive release divides crypto assets into five categories “based on their characteristics, uses, and functions”: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities. The SEC ultimately concludes that three of its five categories—digital commodities, digital collectibles, and digital tools – are “not themselves securities” while saying stablecoins may or may not be securities depending on their characteristics. In addition to conflicting with the Supreme Court’s Howey test, the Senators warned that provisions in the guidance could allow crypto issuers to evade securities regulation altogether, creating regulatory loopholes that bad actors could exploit. The lawmakers also highlighted the potential benefits of the Commission’s interpretation to the Trump family’s extensive crypto empire.
“Just as certainly as investors will be harmed as the Commission works to provide special treatment for crypto, the Trump family’s holdings will be boosted by these favorable regulatory developments,” wrote the Senators.
In light of these developments, reflected in both the Release and also the ongoing tokenization debate between the crypto industry and traditional market players and to ensure that American investors receive the full protections of securities laws for their investments in securities, the senators requested a response to their questions by May 8, 2026.