United States The SEC's next move: the agency's chief legal counsel explains trustee regulation directions

Once the plan passes review by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), United States 's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can formally propose this rule, and solicit input from industry and the public. At the same time, Lindeman cited a staff statement issued by the agency last December as a transitional arrangement to guide how broker-dealers handle trustee business for crypto asset before formal rules are enacted; he also reviewed an initiative in September 2025 that would allow investment advisors to deposit client assets with state trusts and recognize them as qualified trustees of crypto asset .

The last attempt to advance the SEC escrow rule was in 2023, when a very different regulatory environment existed. Gary Gensler, then chairman of SEC , had stated that crypto businesses were not eligible for custody-related assets on their own. However, the rule never made it into final drafting and was repealed after Trump returned to the White House and appointed regulators who are friendly towards the cryptocurrency industry.

Speaking more broadly about SEC 's crypto agenda, Lindeman described the agency's recent series of moves including a proposed rule allowing issuance of crypto asset and new exemption arrangements paving the way for securitization token as ground-breaking work, adding that some groundwork was tedious.

These are routine steps to transform what was once seen as a very unique, unsettling asset class into something that we can say is the stablecoin or the non-securities crypto asset and really put them in a framework where they could be built on this continuously for future generations.