U.S. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins: Tokenization and digital assets will fully enter the financial system "sooner than everyone expects"
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in an interview that "the financial system will be fully operational with cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets within a few years," which means that U.S. law enforcement and supervision will be in line with asset tokenization and develop more detailed classification regulations and innovation exemptions for cryptoassets.
(Previous summary: Citadel blasted "Coinbase U.S. stock tokenization" at the SEC meeting: Defi should not be exempted and should be compared with existing securities laws)
(Background supplement: U.S. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins: The "Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act" is about to pass, and regulatory clarity will soon be in place)
Wall Street with the United States at its core will drive on the highway of digital assets, current SEC Chairman Paul Atkins on Fox Fox Business News' "Mornings with Maria" interviewed on camera and described that within a few years the financial system will run cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, as well as a series of tokenized assets. This passage aroused major concern in the encryption community.
SEC CHAIR SAYS THE ENTIRE FINANCIAL SYSTEM WILL RUN ON #BITCOIN AND CRYPTO WITHIN JUST A FEW YEARS
"IT'S THE WAY THE WORLD WILL BE" 🔥 pic.twitter.com/k1FJbD0kIC
— The Bitcoin Historian (@pete_rizzo_) December 6, 2025
SEC builds encryption enforcement into rules
Previously on Gary Gensler During the era, the Wells Notice in the name of "enforcement supervision" continued to crack down on the encryption market. Encryption start-ups often discovered that they had crossed the line at the last moment, resulting in the outflow of funds and manpower to Dubai and Singapore. With Trump re-taking office and Paul Atkins taking the chair of the SEC, the U.S. attitude toward encryption is completely different. He emphasized in the interview:
Digital transactions and blockchain technology are driving the biggest change in the U.S. financial system in decades. Smart contracts and on-chain transactions can bring daily transparency and security. The market will be "tokenized" much faster than many people expect. This is what the world will become.
Is encryption returning to the United States? The battle for financial standards
SEC’s comprehensive shift in encryption supervision is not only an industrial issue, but also related to financial sovereignty. As bills such as the CLARITY Act advance in Congress, the United States is trying to regain its indisputable say in global financial standards with digital payments (USD stablecoins).
In the past few years, almost only the United States and China in the world have tried to regulate digital assets, tokenization, and make cryptocurrencies illegal. Now the U.S. authorities have turned to an open attitude. This means that the United States will adopt the approach of "encryption innovation" and carry out continuous and strict supervision from the tokenization of traditional markets.
Paul Atkins said, "I believe that the United States needs to embrace digital assets in order to maintain the United States at the forefront in fields such as cryptocurrency." Not only does it directly compete with China for the leading position in financial digitalization, but it also includes all major markets supported by the U.S. dollar system into one basket.
