The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has unveiled “Project Crypto,” a broad roadmap that promises to overhaul federal oversight of digital assets. Announced late last week by SEC Chair Paul Atkins, the plan outlines a single federal exchange licence, clearer classifications for crypto tokens—many to be treated as investment contracts rather than traditional securities—and explicit room for decentralised finance platforms and on-chain settlement. The initiative marks a sharp departure from the agency’s previous enforcement-led stance and is intended, Atkins said on CNBC, to make the United States “the crypto capital of the world.” Regulatory momentum accelerated on 4 August when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission began a parallel “Crypto Sprint,” saying it would work with the SEC to execute Trump-administration policies and flesh out technical rules under Project Crypto. Joint rulemaking is expected to cover custody, stablecoin oversight and cross-agency market surveillance, bringing two of Washington’s key market watchdogs into unusually close alignment on digital-asset policy. Prices steadied after the announcements. Bitcoin hovered near US$115,000 and ether traded above US$3,550 in early Asia hours, recovering from a weekend sell-off linked to tariff concerns and exchange-traded-fund outflows. Retail favourites XRP and dogecoin gained as much as 5 percent, while broader sentiment improved on expectations that a coherent U.S. rulebook could attract fresh institutional participation.