SEC comment window closes on Reg Crypto with submissions still arriving

The public comment period on the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed Regulation Crypto Assets closed on Oct. 20 after roughly 140 submissions, and the agency is still taking letters. An SEC spokesperson said the commission would keep accepting comments after the period ends, TokenPost reported on Oct. 21. That report drew a distinction worth keeping straight: Oct. 20 marked the end of the stated comment period, not a bar on feedback reaching the staff. Crypto Briefing reported the same day that research into the rulemaking file found no formal extension of the comment period had been noticed, which means late letters arrive outside a noticed window rather than inside a prolonged one.

The agency's own comment page for File No. S7-2026-27 shows what that looks like in practice. Submissions posted there are dated Oct. 21, a day after the stated deadline, including letters from Bitwise's general counsel, Nasdaq's chief legal officer, the law firm Skadden and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, according to the SEC listing. Scores more arrived on Oct. 20 itself, among them Coinbase, Ripple, the Blockchain Association, the DeFi Education Fund and Uniswap Labs.

The proposal itself is unchanged. The SEC issued Regulation Crypto Assets on Aug. 18 as Release Nos. 33-11434 and 34-106150, with the Federal Register version published Aug. 21 and comments due 60 days later, the agency's rulemaking page states. It would create two Securities Act exemptions for crypto offerings: a startup lane covering up to $5 million over four years, and a fundraising exemption covering up to $75 million in any 12-month period, with financial statements and ongoing reports required for the larger raise. Both keep the antifraud and antimanipulation provisions of the federal securities laws in force, and the package includes a conditional safe harbor that would take qualifying crypto assets out of the "investment contract" definition for securities-law purposes.

The comment file reflects where the pressure sits. Crypto Briefing reported that the Hyperliquid Policy Center and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association pushed for changes to how the rule treats airdrops and how far the proposed safe harbor reaches. Airdrops are free token distributions that projects send to users or communities, and giving tokens away for free can still raise questions under securities law about whether an investment contract exists, that account explained. The safe harbor would preempt certain state securities rules for qualifying offerings, so issuers would not have to clear a separate process in each state, though federal antifraud law would still apply. Other named commenters in Crypto Briefing's account include the Alternative Investment Management Association and SkyBridge Capital's Anthony Scaramucci. On the SEC's own list, firms and trade groups filed on both sides of the details: Coinbase's general counsel, Ripple's deputy general counsel, Stellar and Cardano Foundation representatives, the Independent Community Bankers of America and Better Markets all appear among the Oct. 20 filings, alongside at least one anonymous retail investor.

Regulation Crypto Assets is the SEC's half of the federal crypto rulemaking push that accelerated after the Clarity Act failed in the Senate. The proposal builds on a joint SEC-CFTC interpretation issued in March 2026 that sorted crypto assets into five categories, and Chairman Paul Atkins has presented it as a way to ease capital formation while keeping investor protections, Crypto Briefing noted. The CFTC moved on its own track earlier this month, publishing an advance notice on Oct. 5 that would treat certain retail crypto transactions as if they were futures unless they clear an actual-delivery exception.

A comment period close is a procedural marker, not a decision. The commission can revise the proposed text, adopt it largely as written, or draft something else, and it is not required to answer each letter individually. With the formal window shut and letters still arriving, the next concrete signal will be whether the SEC publishes a revised proposal or moves toward a final rule.