Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda says agency may abandon Regulation ATS proposed rule that loops in crypto exchanges

Acting U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mark Uyeda said he directed the agency's staff to review a proposed rule change that would expand the definition of an "exchange" in a way that could potentially loop in decentralized crypto projects, marking the latest change the SEC has made under the new Trump administration.

The rule, called Regulation ATS, which has been worked on for years at the SEC and revisited in April 2024, was pulled in a different direction when former SEC Chair Gary Gensler took office, Uyeda said on Monday at the 2025 Annual Washington Conference of the Institute of International Bankers.

Uyeda said "communication protocols" would have been included in the definition of an exchange and that the agency didn't clearly define it.

"Effectively, the vastly expanded definition of an 'exchange' would have picked up various protocols used with respect to crypto assets," Uyeda said. "In my view, it was a mistake for the Commission to link together regulation of the Treasury markets with a heavy-handed attempt to tamp down the crypto market."

"... in light of the significant negative public comment received on the definition of exchange with respect to crypto, I have asked SEC staff for options on abandoning that part of the proposal," he added.

Under the proposed rule, DeFi projects would have to make regular filings with the SEC and be subject to mandatory disclosures. Some in the crypto industry had criticized the rule's expansion and said it could " destroy " decentralized exchanges.

Uyeda's move on Monday marks the latest under the new administration. During the previous Biden administration, former Chair Gensler said most cryptocurrencies, aside from bitcoin, were securities. However, with Gensler's exit and the Trump administration's arrival, the SEC has rapidly reversed course on several key crypto policies. In a matter of just a few weeks, it has rescinded  controversial crypto accounting guidance,  dropped  enforcement actions against major crypto industry players,  created a crypto task force and issued a statement on memecoins .