MAROKO133 Breaking crypto: SEC Chair Paul Atkins Floats ‘Safe Harbor’ Exemptions for Crypt

📌 MAROKO133 Breaking crypto: SEC Chair Paul Atkins Floats ‘Safe Harbor’ Exemptions

The SEC just gave crypto its biggest regulatory green light in years.

Chair Paul Atkins floated a safe harbor exemption on March 18 that lets crypto projects operate without immediate securities registration. It is a direct reversal of the regulation by enforcement era that suffocated US-based development for years.

Token projects now have a compliant runway to decentralize without the threat of an SEC lawsuit hanging over them. For altcoin valuations, that changes the math entirely.x

The Safe Harbor Framework Explained

Atkins is cutting through a decade of deliberate ambiguity.

Speaking at a Digital Chamber event, he laid out a framework that separates capital raising from the underlying asset. Four categories are now explicitly excluded from securities jurisdiction. Digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, and payment stablecoins.

For everything that does not fit cleanly into those boxes yet, the safe harbor buys time. Instead of Wells Notices for technically failing the Howey Test during development, projects face purpose-fit disclosures and a transparent path toward decentralization. Build first. Comply as you go.

Custody rules are also getting overhauled. Broker-dealers will be able to hold both crypto assets and traditional securities simultaneously. The special purpose broker-dealer model that no compliant firm could actually use is effectively dead.

Atkins is trying to bring crypto trading back to national securities exchanges and stabilize a market that has been hammered by legal uncertainty for years. Assets like XRP have historically exploded the moment regulatory clouds clear.

Those clouds are clearing fast.

Market Implications for Issuers and Exchanges

The immediate winners are US-based token issuers and exchanges.

Coinbase has operated for years under the threat that any listing could trigger a lawsuit. A formal safe harbor removes that existential risk entirely. That clarity is the missing piece institutional product approvals have been waiting for.

The ETF race is the most direct beneficiary. Solana’s push for a spot ETF has faced headwinds specifically because the SEC previously labeled SOL a security. If SOL lands in the digital commodity or digital tool bucket under Atkins’ new classification, the path to approval gets significantly shorter overnight.

The broader impact is a sector-wide repricing. Token prices have been trading at a discount for years to account for enforcement risk. Remove that discount and valuations adjust upward across the board.

The cost of capital just dropped for the entire industry.

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🔗 Sumber: cryptonews.com

📌 MAROKO133 Update crypto: Hong Kong’s RedotPay Targets $150M Pre-IPO Raise for US

RedotPay is looking to raise $150 million in a pre-IPO round. The Hong Kong based stablecoin payment processor is targeting a $4 billion valuation.

The plan is to lock in capital before a US public listing that could come as early as this year.

What makes it interesting is the context. The company says it is already profitable and has no immediate pressure to raise. There has also been recent executive turnover. And yet the fundraise is moving forward anyway.

Something is being set up here.

RedotPay Deal Mechanics: Leveraging Unicorn Status

RedotPay already pulled in $194 million across rounds in late 2025, including a $107 million Series B led by Goodwater Capital. The business generates over $150 million in annualized revenue facilitating crypto-to-fiat spending through traditional payment networks. The fundamentals are there.

JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Jefferies are reportedly lined up as underwriters. The $150 million raised here likely funds compliance infrastructure and market expansion ahead of the public debut.

The timing is deliberate. BlackRock keeps expanding Bitcoin exposure. Institutional appetite is returning. The window for crypto-adjacent IPOs is reopening and RedotPay is moving fast to capitalize on it.

But there are real headwinds. At least five senior executives departed after less than a year. Multiple compliance leadership changes. And the company is currently pursuing a $4 billion valuation without a sitting CFO.

Wall Street is getting selective about crypto IPOs. Compliance disclosures will be scrutinized hard. RedotPay has strong numbers to show. It also has some awkward questions to answer before the listing.

What It Means for the Sector

A $4 billion listing validates stablecoin payments as a standalone vertical and puts pressure on legacy fintechs to integrate or get left behind. Regional banks are already feeling it. Networks like Cari exist specifically because payment flows are bleeding toward crypto-native rails.

For traders, this IPO is a bellwether. If underwriters sell the book at $4 billion despite the executive churn, it signals extreme hunger for crypto infrastructure exposure. If they struggle, it confirms that the compliance discount for offshore-originated firms is still steep and reprices every other private crypto unicorn eyeing a public exit.

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🔗 Sumber: cryptonews.com