The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday launched “Project Crypto,” a sweeping effort to rewrite federal rules for digital assets and align them with policy recommendations released by the White House a day earlier. Chair Paul Atkins said the initiative will serve as the agency’s “north star” in positioning the United States at the forefront of the global crypto market. Atkins has directed every SEC policy division to work with a new crypto task force on drafting clear regulations for token distributions, custody and secondary trading, and on setting objective tests for deciding when a digital asset qualifies as a security. Staff have also been told to craft registration pathways that would permit initial coin offerings, airdrops, staking, lending and other activities that have largely migrated offshore under the prior regulatory regime. The chair added that the agency is exploring a formal oversight category for decentralised-finance software and may allow certain investment contracts tied to non-security crypto assets to trade on unlicensed venues. Emphasising what he called a “core American value,” Atkins voiced support for individuals’ right to self-custody Bitcoin and other tokens, underscoring his goal to expand domestic participation in the sector.