Atkins Puts Tokenized Deposits In Bank Rulemaking

SEC Chair Paul Atkins said tokenized deposits could receive market-regulator approval as soon as next year, putting a bank-issued digital money product inside the Trump administration’s broader push to move financial-market rules on-chain.

Atkins made the comment in New York during an onstage interview with Larry Kudlow after a speech on free markets and regulatory clarity.

He said the SEC is using Project Crypto to modernize rules so markets can operate on distributed-ledger technology.

Tokenized deposits sit between crypto-market policy and traditional bank regulation.

They are not the same story as a privately issued stablecoin.

The source material frames them as a regulated banking-sector instrument that could use blockchain infrastructure while staying connected to existing financial institutions.

Project Crypto Promises Clearer Rules Rather Than Firm Approvals

Atkins said the SEC is not trying to favor the crypto sector over traditional finance or advantage specific firms.

He described the aim as clear rules that let markets decide which digital-asset models work.

He also criticized earlier crypto policy as deliberately uncertain and said digital-asset innovation had moved to other countries.

The speech used broad language about the United States becoming a crypto capital, but the concrete banking point was narrower: regulators may permit tokenized deposits and coordinate their treatment with bank supervisors.

During the question-and-answer session, Kudlow asked whether crypto should be treated as currency, an investment asset or something else.

Atkins said that decision should be left to the market rather than the SEC chair choosing a single category.

The market-choice argument leaves unresolved how far federal agencies will go before banks can offer tokenized deposits to ordinary commercial clients.

Bank Regulators Enter The Same Conversation

Atkins said he has been working with other regulatory agency heads to reduce jurisdiction fights that slowed financial innovation.

His Basel III comments named three bank supervisors: the Fed, FDIC and OCC.

His Basel III comments moved beyond digital-asset approval.

Atkins said he urged bank regulators to change requirements that he believes push banks toward lending to private equity and private credit firms instead of lending directly to small and medium-size businesses.

He said other agency heads were receptive to his suggestions.

Atkins did not name a formal proposal text.

The regulatory package is broader than a crypto speech.

Tokenized deposits, market-structure modernization and bank-capital calibration are being discussed together by an SEC chair who wants fewer agency turf fights.

The remarks also leave banks with a timing and compliance gap.

A possible approval next year would not by itself explain how examiners would treat tokenized balances, what disclosures customers would receive, or how bank supervisors would compare the product with stablecoins and other digital cash workflows.

Atkins described coordination, but he did not publish an interagency rule or name a final approval process.

The unresolved details remain substantial.

Atkins did not disclose a formal approval date, rule text, named participating banks, deposit-insurance treatment, capital treatment, customer launch timetable or the specific conditions regulators would attach to tokenized deposits.