SEC Crypto Broker Rules Enter White House Review

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's plan to rewrite broker-dealer rules for crypto assets entered White House review on Nov. 3, a reginfo.gov listing shows.

The proposal is titled "Amendments to Broker-Dealer Financial Responsibility and Recordkeeping and Reporting Rules Regarding Crypto Assets" (RIN 3235-AN48). It sits at the proposed-rule stage, carries an "Economically Significant" flag on the OMB page, and has no legal deadline. Review status remained pending as of Thursday.

What the rules cover

The SEC's regulatory agenda says its Division of Trading and Markets is considering amendments to Rules 15c3-1 and 15c3-3 and other financial-responsibility rules, plus recordkeeping Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4, so those rules apply clearly to crypto assets. In plain terms, those are the capital, customer-protection and books-and-records standards broker-dealers already follow for stocks and bonds.

Broker-dealer financial responsibility rules set how much capital a firm must hold and how it safeguards customer assets. Recordkeeping rules say what trades and holdings the firm must log. The crypto amendments would spell out how those duties work when the asset is a token.

Crypto Briefing and Bitbo both reported the OMB filing on Thursday, citing Bloomberg's earlier account of the submission. The public text of the proposal has not been released. White House review comes first; a notice of proposed rulemaking would follow if OMB clears the draft.

In our opinion: the bigger story is the process gate. OMB review is what stands between this draft and a formal proposal. The date to watch is when OMB clears it and the SEC posts the NPRM.