SEC Speaks 2026: Five Key Takeaways

Key Takeaways 

• A unified policy vision. Chairman Atkins articulated the A-C-T strategic framework (Advance, Clarify, and Transform) while sharply criticizing the prior Commission's (Commission) approach to digital assets and disclosure.
• Joint SEC-CFTC crypto taxonomy. The SEC and CFTC jointly issued an interpretive release categorizing digital assets under the Howey test, concluding that several token types including blockchain-native tokens, gaming tokens, and stablecoins fall outside the securities laws.
• Enforcement “full steam ahead.” In the face of recent unexpected leadership departures, the new Acting Director of Enforcement Sam Waldon emphasized continuity and quality over quantity, signaled a measured approach to nonfraud cases that rewards self-correction, and outlined updates to the Wells process.
• Disclosure overhaul and semiannual reporting. The Division of Corporation Finance (Division) is pursuing a sweeping modernization of Regulation S-K and Rule 14a-8, while leadership has signaled openness to allowing public companies to choose their own periodic reporting cadence.
• Market structure, tariffs, and PCAOB. The Division of Trading and Markets advanced SEC-CFTC harmonization and tokenization efforts, the Office of the Chief Accountant addressed tariff-related accounting questions, and the Commission installed new PCAOB leadership. 

SEC leadership said the agency is moving ahead with a broad agenda, which it outlined at Practising Law Institute’s SEC Speaks conference on March 19-20, 2026, in Washington, D.C. As part of this broad agenda, Chairman Paul Atkins outlined an A-C-T strategy focused on crypto regulation, disclosure reform, small business capital formation, and international cooperation. Enforcement leadership also stressed that, despite a recent leadership shakeup, the Division remains “full steam ahead.” 

A Unified Policy Vision  

Chairman Atkins’ opening remarks established the A-C-T framework as the organizing principle for the agency's agenda. The first pillar, Advance, is about bringing SEC operations into alignment with the realities of modern capital markets. Clarify refers to providing definitive guidance on how existing law applies to emerging products, most notably digital assets. Transform targets regulations that, in Atkins’ view, have outlived their usefulness, particularly disclosure requirements that have drifted from their original materiality standard into what he characterized as a subjective inquiry into “what any particular investor may be curious to know.” 

Atkins reserved his sharpest language for the prior Commission's approach to crypto, calling it a “misguided regulation-by-enforcement campaign” that “killed” promising products or drove them offshore. He argued that the Commission's objective should be to “increase the cost of fraud and manipulation, not the cost of compliance itself,” and that "[a] rulebook crafted for one era does not automatically serve investors well in another." Updating the rules, he added, “does not mean deviating from the SEC's core mission” but rather “fulfilling it with tools that are equal to the task.” 

The framework was not limited to Atkins' keynote. Throughout the conference, officials across divisions from Corporation Finance to Trading and Markets to Examinations framed their priorities in explicitly A-C-T terms, signaling that this is a genuine operational mandate. 

Atkins closed by invoking former Chairman Bill Casey’s call for the audience to challenge the agency and press it to think hard, adding that investors, innovators, and entrepreneurs are counting on the SEC—and the bar—to get it right. 

The SEC and CFTC Issue a Joint ‘Crypto Taxonomy’ 

Perhaps the most consequential development previewed at the conference was the joint SEC-CFTC interpretive release on digital assets, published days before the event. Sebastian Gomez Abero, deputy director for Legal and Regulatory Policy in the Division of Corporation Finance, walked the audience through the release's framework, which he described as a “crypto taxonomy,” which is a categorization of digital assets with an analysis of whether each type constitutes a security under the Howey test. The release concludes that several categories of digital assets fall outside the securities laws: blockchain-native tokens, gaming tokens and collectibles, digital tools providing access to events or memberships, and stablecoins. 

Abero stated that an investment contract ceases to exist once a project is sufficiently developed and the promises made to investors have been fulfilled, “there is no longer an expectation of profit” and the project “is living on in itself.” Pressed by former Commissioner Elad Roisman on whether this was “the final book of Howey,” Abero drew a careful line: The release represents “the last chapter in the book of Howey, not the last chapter in the book of crypto assets.”  

Abero pointed to the recently enacted Memorandum of Understanding between the SEC and CFTC as evidence that the two agencies intend to cooperate closely going forward. He acknowledged that courts may interpret the law differently, while expressing confidence that they would take the Commission’s analysis into account. 

Enforcement Is ‘Full Steam Ahead’ 

Acting Director Sam Waldon took the stage just days after it was announced that his predecessor, Judge Margaret Ryan, had departed after only seven months amid reported disagreements with agency leadership over how to handle certain enforcement matters, including cases involving President Trump and his family. His core message was blunt: “Acting does not mean inactive,” and his marching orders are “full steam ahead.” 

Waldon laid out an enforcement philosophy centered on quality rather than volume. The Division, he said, is not measuring its effectiveness by the size of penalties or the number of cases filed, which are metrics he suggested are poor proxies for real impact. Instead, the Division is prioritizing getting money back to harmed investors, combating insider trading, addressing financial and accounting fraud, rooting out market manipulation, and pursuing breaches of fiduciary duty. He also highlighted the Cross-Border Task Force, established in September 2025, which targets pump-and-dump schemes perpetrated by foreign-based U.S. issuers. 

Waldon's comments on nonfraud cases are particularly worth noting. He acknowledged that the Division “will continue to bring nonfraud cases in the right circumstances” but signaled a more measured approach: “If you make an honest mistake, and fix it, take steps to remediate, improve internal controls, and help harmed investors—those are not the cases we are looking at. If you don't do that, that is a different story.” Cooperation and self-correction will seemingly be rewarded, but inaction will not. 

Chief Counsel Mark Cave elaborated on recently published changes to the Enforcement Manual, particularly the Wells process reforms. Under the updated guidance, staff are encouraged to share “salient and probative” documents with Wells notice recipients that they do not already possess. In a fraud case, Cave explained, a recipient who has not obstructed the investigation “should be able to see key documents” and “shouldn't have to guess where the misrepresentation or omission is.” Cave was careful to set boundaries, however as the staff is “not undertaking an effort to scour records for anything that may be exculpatory,” and the scope of any production will “vary on a case-by-case basis.” He also emphasized the importance of preserving the integrity of the investigative record and avoiding what he called "a reverse fishing expedition." 

Ryan Wolfe, chief accountant for the Division, also rejected the idea that accounting and financial fraud cases have faded, calling it a timing issue and saying the unit has been busy since January. He pointed to recurring problems such as a disconnect between management’s internal view of results and what is communicated to investors, the way misstatements can spread across multiple parts of a filing, and the strong role leadership plays in shaping a culture of compliance. 

An Ambitious Disclosure Overhaul and a Potential Shift to Semiannual Reporting 

Corporation Finance officials made clear that the Division’s disclosure modernization effort is comprehensive in scope and actively underway. Christina Thomas, deputy director and chief advisor on Disclosure, Policy and Rulemaking, told the audience that “the door is very much open” for industry engagement on Regulation S-K reform and revisions to Rule 14a-8, the shareholder proposal rule, adding that “everything is on the table” and dismissing any characterization of the effort as “nibbling around the edges.” An open comment period on Regulation S-K closes next month, and Thomas noted that attorneys and accountants are already engaged in a deep review of existing rules and their historical origins. 

Deputy Director of Disclosure Operations Duc Dang provided a candid operational update. The government shutdown, which ran from October into November, created a backlog of more than 1,000 unreviewed filings and pushed the average time to first comment to approximately 70 days. The Division has since brought that figure down to 30 days and processed initial comments on more than 600 filings since the government reopened, which is more than double the pace of the same period the prior year. Publication of comment letters, however, remains roughly five months behind schedule due to the shutdown and staff departures, and Dang cautioned against drawing conclusions from the reduced volume. The Division is also exploring automation to speed up the historically manual publication process. 

Associate Director Luna Bloom outlined a rulemaking pipeline that includes enhancements to the emerging growth company framework aimed at encouraging more companies to go and stay public; shelf registration modernization; executive compensation disclosure reform building on last summer's Regulation S-K roundtable; and semiannual reporting. On the last point, Bloom suggested “the market can dictate this rather than SEC.” 

Semiannual reporting was discussed across panels. Chief Accountant Heather Rosenberger noted that both the Chairman and the Director of Corporation Finance have signaled that public companies “should be able to decide the cadence” of periodic reporting, with frequency potentially driven by factors such as company size, lifecycle stage, industry, and competitive dynamics. An open comment period is expected, and Rosenberger indicated the staff is actively engaging with stakeholders on questions of comparability and practical market impact. 

Market Structure, Tokenization, Tariffs, and PCAOB Leadership 

Trading and Markets. The Division of Trading and Markets focused heavily on the SEC-CFTC harmonization initiative, which extends well beyond crypto. Associate Director Carol McGee described the project as targeting jurisdictional ambiguity across products including prediction markets, event contracts, and instruments that combine features of futures and options. Associate Director Eric Juzenas explained that two categories of novel products are receiving particular attention: products whose regulatory classification is uncertain, and products that market participants want to trade on a single platform (the “super app” concept).  

On tokenization, the Division announced during the panel that a Nasdaq tokenization filing had been approved that afternoon—a concrete development that reinforced the administration's commitment to facilitating blockchain integration in traditional market infrastructure. Associate Director Michael Macchiaroli identified custody of customer digital assets and the definition of “ready market” for crypto assets as two key unresolved issues. On extended trading hours, Juzenas noted the Commission has approved filings for platforms such as 24X Exchange and is evaluating exemptive requests for interim overnight trading arrangements, with Associate Director Jeffrey Mooney emphasizing staff focus on operational resilience concerns including cybersecurity, margin frameworks, and the ability to monitor positions around the clock.  

Tariffs. The Office of the Chief Accountant addressed tariff-related accounting and disclosure questions at length. Kurt Hohl observed that few companies are currently recognizing tariff refunds on their financial statements because of uncertainty about how refund mechanisms will operate, and that companies with material tariff-related exposures may need to adjust their financial statements and ensure adequate disclosure. Rosenberger noted that the specificity of tariff disclosures has increased meaningfully over the past year but cautioned that non-GAAP adjustments designed to strip out the impact of tariffs are “likely not appropriate.” 

PCAOB. Hohl also discussed significant changes at the PCAOB, noting that the Commission installed four new board members last month, including—for the first time—an audit practitioner serving as chairman. Hohl said he has challenged the new board to evaluate whether existing approaches remain “fit for purpose” and to consider placing greater focus on firms' systems of quality management, a shift that could reshape how the PCAOB conducts inspections and engages with audit committees and international regulators.  

Conclusion 

The conference painted a picture of an agency that is moving with unusual speed and ambition. Across every major division, senior officials reaffirmed that the SEC is moving on with the goal of protecting investors and facilitating capital formation, rather than regulating through uncertainty and complexity. We will continue to monitor to see if the SEC’s performance matches its ambitions. 

For more information, an expanded version of this Update was previously published in Law360.