Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act, the SEC is required to publish twice a year an agenda identifying rules that it estimates it may consider in the next 12 months. On September 4, 2025, the SEC’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs released the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. In a statement referring to the agenda, Chairman Paul S. Atkins stated: “[t]his regulatory agenda reflects that it is a new day at the [SEC]. The items on the agenda represent the [SEC]’s renewed focus on supporting innovation, capital formation, market efficiency, and investor protection.”
Importantly, the agenda reflects the recent withdrawal of a host of items from the last Administration (e.g., proposed changes to Exchange Act 14a-8’s “substantial implementation,” “duplication” and “resubmission” grounds for exclusion of shareholder proposals) that the SEC felt did not align with the goal that regulation should be “smart, effective, and appropriately tailored within the confines of [its] statutory authority.”
Because a key priority of the new Chairman is clear rules of the road for the issuance, custody, and trading of crypto assets while continuing to discourage bad actors from violating the law, the new agenda covers potential rule proposals related to the offer and sale of crypto assets to help clarify the regulatory framework for crypto assets and provide greater certainty to the market.
The new agenda also covers a number of envisioned deregulatory rule proposals to reduce compliance burdens and facilitate capital formation, including by simplifying pathways for raising capital and investor access to private businesses. It discusses amending existing rules to improve and modernize them as well as address disclosure burdens.
Finally, the new agenda considers recommending that the SEC invite public comment regarding rethinking the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), especially in the wake of a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Market participants and Congress have pushed back on CAT’s seemingly endless cost increases and the risks of storing so much sensitive data together.
It's going to be an interesting and challenging time to be involved in the capital markets or a securities lawyer– stay tuned!
