- The heads of the SEC and the CFTC will join Trump at the upcoming White House meeting with top crypto executives.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) earlier cancellation of its open meeting on crypto is now making more sense. Paul Atkins, the agency’s chairman, is reportedly attending a major event the White House organized for Wednesday, which will include big wigs in crypto. His counterpart, Michael Selig, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will also be there.
Paul Atkins to Attend White House’s Crypto Meeting
Previously, the SEC informed the public that it will move its open meeting on crypto from last Friday to a later date. The meeting would have focused on whether it should consider issuance of “new rules to create a tailored offering regime for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.”
The body cited an “unforeseen scheduling issue” in its action. However, some people suspected a political angle behind it.
Atkin’s confirmation that he will attend a meeting at the White House with the heads of the largest companies in the sector aligns with his agency’s latest decision. This reinforces the theory that the Friday open meeting’s abrupt postponement was due to a political accommodation.
Attendees in the Event
According to Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller, executives from Coinbase, a16z, Ripple, Chainlink, Kalshi, Paradigm, and the Digital Chamber will be among the attendees of the big event at the White House. Additionally, President Donald Trump, Atkins, and Selig will preside over the meeting.
The source claimed that the Wednesday affair will be a “kick-off for the inaugural meeting of the CFTC’s 35-person Innovation Advisory Committee on Thursday.” The upcoming event lines up with the agency’s push for regulatory clarity in the crypto space, as it seeks to establish a clearer taxonomy for digital assets, oversight of prediction markets, and governance rules for emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI).
The CLARITY Act Crisis
The crypto meeting comes at a critical moment following another delay in the passage of the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act in the legislature. The Senate headed to recess this August without even a cloture vote on the bill, which could have ended the filibuster and pushed it to a final vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune still filed a last-hour motion for a procedural vote, scheduling it as the Senate resumes session by mid-September. However, the delays in the CLARITY Act have apparently led the crypto market to price in the possibility that the bill will not reach Trump’s desk for signature before 2027.
Prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi are reflecting the sentiment around it with 19% and 24% odds of approval, respectively, during the weekend.
