Chief Legal Advisor of the U.S. SEC's Cryptocurrency Working Group Elaborates on the Path for Cryptocurrency Custody Rules

According to CoinDesk, Taylor Lindman, the Chief Legal Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Crypto Working Group, stated at the CoinDesk Policy & Regulation event held in Washington that the SEC is advancing rules for the custody of crypto assets. The relevant proposal has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, covering investment companies and broker-dealers. She indicated that the rule aims to inform the market about how to hold non-securities crypto assets within broker-dealers without special registration and clarifies that investment advisors can store client assets in institutions such as state-chartered trusts.

Once the proposal passes the review by the Office of Management and Budget, the SEC will formally present it and seek feedback from the industry and the public. Lindman also mentioned that the SEC will issue an employee statement in December 2025 as a transitional arrangement, guiding broker-dealers on handling crypto custody matters before the rules are implemented, and will allow investment advisors to store client assets in state-chartered trusts as qualified crypto custodians starting in September 2025.

Lindman described the SEC's recent work as "laying the groundwork," including previously proposed rules allowing crypto issuance and exemptions for tokenized securities. She stated that the SEC is working to ensure that existing securities intermediaries and market participants can confidently use blockchain to hold and trade crypto assets. Previously, the SEC's attempts at custody rules under Gary Gensler in 2023 were abandoned, and a leadership supportive of crypto was appointed after the Trump administration took office.