A new form for crypto leads to questions of format
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, a new set of rules for certain crypto asset investment contracts. It comes as the SEC focuses on moving crypto capital-raising out of what Chairman Paul Atkins has called a “square peg in a round hole” approach, in which issuers are using rules written in the 1930s for this novel type of asset.
The proposal offers crypto asset markets ways to raise money without the full requirements of securities registration: a startup exemption offering of up to $5 million over four years, and a larger fundraising exemption allowing up to $75 million in any twelve-month period, the latter requiring financial statements and ongoing reporting obligations. It also sets out a way for a crypto asset to stop being treated as a security. Once an issuer can show it has stopped the development and management work it originally promised investors, and the asset is running on its own, it would fall outside the SEC’s reach.
Issuers using the larger fundraising route would file a new offering statement, Form 1-CRYPTO, whose first part is proposed as an XML-based fillable form capturing information about the issuer and the offering. XBRL US has already noted that it will submit a comment letter urging the Commission to require XBRL instead.
While a fillable XML form captures data, structured, validated XBRL would make those crypto disclosures analysable from the moment they are filed, rather than having investors rebuild meaning from a static document. If the SEC wants disclosures to protect investors while encouraging innovation, XBRL is the answer. Comments are due by 20 October 2026.
Read the proposal here.
