SEC Proposes Crypto Offering Rules as Senate Leaves CLARITY Act Stalled

4 min readPublished 19 Aug 2026

The Securities and Exchange Commission moved Tuesday to write its own rules for crypto token offerings, stepping into a gap left by Congress after the Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act before its August recess, according to Cointelegraph and Bitcoin Magazine.

The proposal gives crypto issuers two paths to raise money without registering as a securities offering under the Securities Act of 1933: a one-time exemption for up to $5 million over four years, or up to $75 million in any 12-month period, Bitcoin Magazine and Cointelegraph both reported. The $75 million exemption comes with financial-statement and ongoing-reporting obligations, Bitcoin Magazine reported. Cointelegraph reported that token issuers would be required to make financial statements and would face ongoing reporting requirements, without specifying which exemption tier that requirement attaches to. The rules also carry a conditional safe harbor — once an issuer completes or abandons the managerial work behind a token, that token would no longer count as an ‘investment contract’ and would fall outside the definition of a security, Bitcoin Magazine reported. The public will have 60 days to comment once the proposal is published in the Federal Register, according to both Cointelegraph and Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin Magazine reported the rulemaking is titled “Regulation Crypto Assets” and builds on the SEC’s March interpretation of how securities law applies to crypto assets — a detail no other outlet in this evidence set confirms.

What SEC and CFTC officials said

Cointelegraph quoted SEC Chair Paul Atkins saying legislation remains “indispensable” to producing durable rules that can’t be “unwound by a future rogue regulator,” and that the agency “will continue to support Congress in delivering the CLARITY Act.” Bitcoin Magazine, separately, quoted Atkins describing the proposal as a step to “onshore innovation in crypto asset markets” while Congress works toward a lasting framework. The two outlets carry different remarks from the same chairman; neither carries both.

Cointelegraph also reported that White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt said at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium that regulators would “let loose” on crypto rules if Congress couldn’t move the bill — a detail not mentioned by Bitcoin Magazine or Crypto Briefing. Cointelegraph reported Atkins had been scheduled to speak at that same event but canceled amid the SEC’s announcement, and that the proposal landed ahead of a scheduled Thursday CFTC meeting on crypto, artificial intelligence and prediction markets. Bitcoin Magazine, for its part, reported that CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said he intends to proceed with rulemaking regardless of whether the CLARITY Act becomes law, aiming to finish before the administration’s term ends — a statement only Bitcoin Magazine carries.

Why the CLARITY Act stalled: the reporting doesn’t line up

All three outlets agree the CLARITY Act failed to get a Senate vote before the August recess and that Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture to potentially bring it back up in September. Beyond that, their accounts diverge on the cause.

Bitcoin Magazine reported the floor vote slipped to September after Democrats balked at the bill’s latest draft, and that some Republican senators, including Cynthia Lummis, accused “some” of deliberately holding the bill back — Bitcoin Magazine’s report does not specify whom Lummis was referring to. Crypto Briefing, by contrast, attributed the gridlock to a different mix of unresolved issues: ethics provisions tied to decentralized finance, stablecoin regulations, and the arithmetic of assembling enough Democratic votes to overcome a filibuster. Neither account names the other’s specific sticking points, and no outlet in this set reconciles the two.

The outlets also diverge on how much runway is left. Cointelegraph reported that once the Senate returns, lawmakers have 14 days in session before another break ahead of the November election, followed by 22 more days in session before new members of Congress are sworn in in 2027 — a specific session-day count found nowhere else. Crypto Briefing instead offered a probability estimate: Polymarket priced the implied odds of the bill’s passage at roughly 16% as of early August. The two figures describe different things — legislative calendar versus market-implied odds — and neither outlet’s number appears in the other’s reporting, so there is no way to independently corroborate either.

What’s agreed, what isn’t

Where the three outlets converge: the SEC’s Tuesday proposal is real and includes the $5 million and $75 million exemption thresholds, the conditional safe harbor, and the 60-day comment window; the CLARITY Act (Crypto Briefing identifies it as H.R. 3633, passed by the House in July 2025) failed to clear the Senate before recess; and Thune has filed cloture for a possible September return.

Where they diverge: the name of the SEC rulemaking itself (only Bitcoin Magazine calls it “Regulation Crypto Assets”), which quotes from Atkins made it into which report, the stated reasons the CLARITY Act stalled, and the metric each outlet chose to describe the bill’s remaining chances. None of the three articles, read alone, surfaces both explanations for the stall or both measures of how much time is left.

Why it matters

For token issuers, the exemption thresholds and safe-harbor conditions in the SEC’s proposal are concrete and near-term: a company can now model a $5 million or $75 million raise against a defined regulatory path, pending the comment period. For institutional allocators, the harder question is durability. Crypto Briefing’s framing — that agency rules written under one administration can be rewritten by the next, while legislation is harder to undo — is analysis from that outlet, not a settled fact, but it captures the stakes: rules issued by Atkins’ SEC carry less legal permanence than a statute would, and the CLARITY Act’s fate in the Senate determines whether that gap ever closes.

What to watch

The Federal Register publication date will start the SEC’s 60-day comment clock. The CFTC’s Thursday meeting, per Cointelegraph, is expected to address crypto, AI and prediction-market rulemaking. Whether the Senate takes up the CLARITY Act after reconvening in mid-September, and whether CFTC Chair Michael Selig’s rulemaking proceeds independent of that vote, per Bitcoin Magazine, are the two threads likely to determine whether agency rules remain a stopgap or become the only framework crypto markets get for the remainder of this Congress.