US SEC Chairman Testifies Before Congress: Focusing on Digital Asset Regulation, Investor Protection, Cost Reduction, and IPO Promotion

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul S. Atkins testified before the Congressional Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, outlining the SEC's priorities and emphasizing that the SEC will continue to prioritize protecting investors, maintaining fair and efficient markets, and promoting capital formation, while balancing regulation of traditional markets and digital assets. These priorities include: 1. Reducing corporate compliance costs: Noting that publicly traded companies spend up to $2.7 billion annually on annual report disclosures, emphasizing the need for streamlined, modernized, and substantive information-focused disclosures that are more useful and easier to understand. 2. Supporting IPOs and capital formation: Proposing three initiatives—substantive information-centric disclosures, depoliticizing shareholder meetings, and providing litigation alternatives for companies—to incentivize innovation and protect investors. 3. Advancing digital asset regulation: The SEC is collaborating with the CFTC on Project Crypto to develop a token classification system, provide clear regulatory guidance, and consider exemptions for on-chain transactions and activities. It also supports Congress in advancing the CLARITY Act to establish a federal framework for the crypto market. 4. Reviewing traditional regulatory tools: A comprehensive evaluation of the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) system has been conducted, and measures have been taken to reduce annual costs by approximately $92 million. 5. Strengthen investor protection and law enforcement: Return to the fundamental mission, focus on combating fraud, insider trading, financial violations and cross-border manipulation, and establish a cross-border law enforcement task force to suspend trading of shares of several Asia-Pacific companies to prevent manipulation.