The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on 18 August 2026 proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, a package of registration exemptions and a conditional safe harbor for certain investment contracts that involve crypto assets.

What the Commission put on the table

In a press release (Release No. 2026-76), the SEC said the proposal creates a “clear and fit-for-purpose framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.” The formal proposing release is Release Nos. 33-11434 / 34-106150 (File No. S7-2026-27). A Commission fact sheet summarizes the same structure.

Reuters and CoinDesk independently reported the filing the same day. Both framed it as the agency’s first major permanent crypto rulemaking under Chair Paul S. Atkins, landing four days after the SEC cancelled a planned 14 August open meeting that had been expected to take up the same package.

The proposal sits on top of the joint SEC–CFTC March 2026 interpretive guidance on when federal securities laws apply to crypto assets and transactions. Atkins, in his 18 August statement, credited Commissioner Hester Peirce’s long-running Token Safe Harbor work as the direct lineage of the package. Peirce’s own statement called the proposal “one step on a long road” and invited comments.

This is still a proposal. Nothing is final until the Commission adopts a rule after the comment period.

The two offering tracks, in plain terms

Regulation Crypto Assets aims at “covered investment contracts” tied to crypto assets. Issuers that rely on either exemption stay under federal antifraud and antimanipulation rules.

Startup Exemption. A one-time, non-exclusive path for offerings of up to $5 million over a period of up to four years. The fact sheet and Atkins’s statement describe principles-based narrative disclosures made available to investors, plus public filings at the beginning and end of the reliance period. The idea is a temporary runway while a project works through the essential managerial efforts it promised (building the network or application, meeting stated milestones).

Fundraising Exemption. A larger, non-exclusive track modeled in part on Regulation A, capped at $75 million of covered investment contracts in each 12-month period. The fact sheet splits that track into two tiers: Tier 1 up to $20 million, Tier 2 up to $75 million. Issuers must file offering materials with the same style of narrative disclosure, plus a discussion of financial condition and financial statements (audited for Tier 2), and meet ongoing reporting requirements tailored to these offerings.

Both tracks are designed as alternatives to generic exemptions such as Regulation D or Regulation A that were never written around crypto’s network effects or decentralization goals. Antifraud still applies either way.

The investment-contract safe harbor

The third piece is a conditional safe harbor from the term “investment contract” in the Securities Act and Exchange Act definitions of “security.”

If the conditions are met, the covered investment contract is treated as having ceased to exist, and the related crypto asset is no longer treated as subject to that investment contract for those definitional purposes. Per the fact sheet and Atkins’s statement, an issuer gets there by (1) completing or permanently ceasing all essential managerial efforts it represented or promised under the covered investment contract, without intending new ones of that kind, and (2) making a public filing that certifies those facts with supporting analysis.

In everyday language: once the project has finished (or permanently stopped) the work it sold as the reason buyers should expect profits from the team’s efforts, there is a formal exit ramp from “investment contract” treatment, if the certification holds up. Maintenance and ordinary enhancements after that functionality is live generally do not count as “essential managerial efforts,” matching the March 2026 interpretation.

The proposal would also define “qualified purchaser” in a way that preempts state securities registration and qualification for offers and sales under these exemptions, and for certain secondary-market transactions while ongoing information requirements are met.

Why the timing landed now

Congressional market-structure work, including the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, has been stuck in the Senate, with a procedural vote scheduled for mid-September. Atkins’s statement and the Reuters/CoinDesk coverage both stress the same point from the Commission’s side: agency rules can move while legislation stalls, and durable statute is still what the industry wants for rules that survive a change of administration.

Industry groups including the Blockchain Association and The Digital Chamber welcomed the proposal in the same-day reporting, while continuing to push Congress. Atkins himself said the package “would facilitate capital formation and allow crypto asset innovation to flourish in the United States,” and that legislation remains indispensable for “future-proofed” rules.

For readers outside the U.S., the practical hook is capital formation, not a LatAm statute. Projects that raise from U.S. investors, list tokens on U.S.-touching venues, or build under U.S. counsel will live inside these boxes if they become final. Dollar stablecoin rails and remittance products that LatAm users already hold sit mostly under other regimes (banking, payments, GENIUS Act stablecoin rules); this package is about token fundraising and when an investment contract ends, not about how you spend USDT at a shop in Buenos Aires.

What happens next

Comments run for 60 days after the proposing release is published in the Federal Register (File No. S7-2026-27). After that, the staff can revise and the Commission can vote on a final rule, or decline to. Courts, a future Commission, or a statute can still reshape whatever lands.

Until then, treat the dollar caps, tiers, and safe-harbor conditions as the Commission’s opening bid, not as live law.

Takeaway

On 18 August 2026 the SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets: a $5 million / four-year startup exemption, a $75 million / year fundraising track (with $20 million and $75 million tiers), a conditional investment-contract safe harbor after essential managerial efforts end, and state-law preemption for qualifying offers. Reuters and CoinDesk match the Commission’s own fact sheet and Chair Atkins’s statement on those numbers.

Read the press release and fact sheet if you are raising, advising, or buying into a token sale that might touch U.S. investors. This is reporting on a proposed rule, not legal or financial advice.