The American regulator has once again shaken up the crypto industry by presenting an ambitious project, Regulation Crypto Assets. This initiative, unveiled on Tuesday, offers a clear and legal mechanism for selling tokens to investors in the U.S., while also establishing formal criteria for digital assets to exit the jurisdiction of securities laws. In essence, the regulator is attempting to create predictable "rules of the game" that the market has awaited for years.
What does the new regulation propose?
The project provides two levels of registration exemptions. The first, a streamlined option, allows raising up to $5 million over four years. The second, a more extensive one, opens the possibility of raising up to $75 million over any 12-month period. In both cases, issuers are required to provide investors with simple and clear descriptions of the project's essence. For larger offerings, an additional requirement mandates publishing financial statements and filing regular reports. Notably, federal regulation will take precedence over individual state rules, eliminating a significant portion of bureaucratic barriers.
This structure draws direct parallels to the ICO era, when projects raised billions of dollars through public sales. However, now, unlike that chaotic period, maximum amounts and transparency requirements are predefined, which should protect investors from outright fraudulent schemes.
The initiative logically complements the joint token classification previously published by the SEC and CFTC. It details how a crypto asset that is not a security can fall into the category of an investment contract and, consequently, come under the law. Public comments on the new project will be accepted for 60 days.
The question that made XRP famous has received a written answer
The key question at the center of the long-running legal dispute between the SEC and Ripple has finally received regulatory formalization. Recall that in 2020, the regulator filed a lawsuit alleging that XRP sales violated registration requirements. In 2023, Judge Analisa Torres issued a landmark ruling: the XRP token itself is not a security, but certain institutional transactions were found to violate the law. The case was finally closed in August 2025.
This ruling created a paradoxical situation: a token could only obtain an exemption from security status through the courts, but no clear algorithm for this existed outside the judicial system. The new "safe harbor" offers the missing mechanism. According to the project, if the project team completes or officially ceases the stated managerial work for buyers, the asset no longer falls under the definition of an investment contract.
The market, however, reacted cautiously. XRP continues to trade near the $1 mark, showing minimal changes over the day. The token's market capitalization stands at approximately $62.7 billion, keeping it in sixth place in the overall ranking. At the same time, the price remains far from its all-time high of $3.65, recorded in July 2025.
All attention is now focused on the comment collection phase and subsequent consideration in Congress, where the CLARITY Act bill is already awaiting a Senate vote. The final terms of the "safe harbor" will be decisive for issuers who have released tokens outside the U.S.: they will determine whether sales return to the American market.
My analysis: This is undoubtedly a step forward, but not a revolution. The SEC is trying to balance investor protection with fostering innovation, yet the proposed $75 million limits may prove insufficient for large projects. Moreover, the initiative's ultimate fate will depend on political will in Congress, introducing significant uncertainty. Investors should view this news as a positive signal, but not as a trigger for immediate purchases.