Today in crypto, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins offered further clarity on why nonfungible tokens (NFTs) generally fall outside securities laws, Ethereum aims to cut bridge times by 98% with a new rule, and US Senator Tim Scott expects a compromise on the market structure bill this week.
SEC Chair explains why NFTs fall outside of securities laws
After the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outlined four broad categories of digital assets that fall outside securities laws, Chair Paul Atkins offered further clarity on why nonfungible tokens (NFTs) generally do not meet that definition.
In a Wednesday interview with CNBC, Atkins reiterated that the agency’s recent interpretive release identified four types of digital assets that are typically not considered securities: digital commodities, digital tools, digital collectibles such as NFTs, and stablecoins.
During the interview, host Andrew Ross Sorkin pressed Atkins on digital collectibles, noting they could more easily resemble securities depending on how they are structured.
“Well, that’s true with anything,” Atkins replied, emphasizing that the SEC’s analysis still hinges on the facts and circumstances of each asset, particularly whether it involves an investment contract under longstanding legal precedent.
Ethereum aims to cut bridge times by 98% to 13 seconds with new rule
Ethereum client teams are testing an opt-in fast confirmation mechanism that could cut the time some layer-2 networks and exchanges wait to recognize mainnet deposits to about 13 seconds.
The proposed Fast Confirmation Rule (FCR) would reduce “deposit time from Ethereum L1 to L2s or exchanges to about 13 seconds, an 80-98% reduction for most L2s and exchanges,” Ethereum researcher Julian Ma wrote on X.
Most users today rely on canonical bridges, where transfers typically wait for multiple block confirmations or full finality, a process that can take around 13 minutes. However, many exchanges and L2s do not wait for finality, instead relying on “k-deep” confirmation rules, which offer no formal guarantees. In k-deep confirmation, a transaction is considered finalized only after k blocks (with k being a specific number).
Developers say the rule can be adopted without a hard fork, though client and API integration work is still underway. Client teams are already working on implementations, and once deployed, nodes can begin using the rule without network-wide coordination. Exchanges, L2s and infrastructure providers are expected to integrate it with minimal changes.
Key US senator eyes breakthrough for stalled crypto bill
US Senator Tim Scott says he is expecting a possible compromise this week on a stablecoin yield payments provision that has stalled a crypto market structure bill in the Senate.
“I believe that this week we will have the first proposal in my hands to take a look at,” Scott, the chair of the Senate Banking Committee that is working to advance the bill, said on Tuesday at a crypto lobby event in Washington, D.C.
“If that actually happens before the end of this week, and I think that it will […] I think we’re going to be in much better shape,” he added.
The Senate has been looking to advance its version of a crypto market structure bill that outlines how regulators will approach crypto after the House passed similar legislation in July, called the CLARITY Act.
