Progress on a potential crypto safe harbor framework is now entering a key regulatory phase as it is up for White review.

US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins said the agency’s proposed “Regulation Crypto Assets” package has been submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, placing it under White House review ahead of publication.

“We will have reg crypto that we will be proposing here shortly. It’s in fact at OIRA right now, which is the next step before being published,” Atkins said during remarks at the Digital Assets and Emerging Technology Policy Summit.

The regulatory process now moves through OIRA review before publication in the Federal Register, where it will be opened for public comment. That stage often determines how proposals are adjusted before any final adoption.

As previously reported by crypto.news, Atkins first detailed plans for the framework earlier this month. The proposal outlines a three-part framework designed to address how crypto projects raise capital and transition out of securities classification. 

One component introduces a startup exemption, allowing early-stage ventures to raise funds over a four-year period with lighter disclosure requirements. Another creates a fundraising exemption that permits issuers to raise capital within a 12-month window while maintaining access to other registration exemptions under federal securities laws.

A central feature of the package is an investment contract safe harbor. Under this approach, certain digital assets could fall outside securities classification once project teams step back from managerial roles that were previously promised or implied during fundraising.

Atkins indicated that parts of the framework are still being refined, with the SEC seeking industry input to ensure the rules are workable in practice. Additional elements, including exemptive relief and safe harbor protections, are being built into the proposal as the agency shapes the final structure.

Meanwhile, the commission, led by Paul Atkins, has also stepped up efforts to ease its enforcement-first approach and clarify other parts of the crypto market.

The SEC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Both agencies have agreed to eliminate any friction that could hamper rule-making in the future.

Lawmakers are also negotiating whether the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act should allow stablecoin yields.

The challenge to solving the quantum threat to Bitcoin could be more social than technical, according to Grayscale’s head of research, especially if the community fails to come to an agreement on certain contentious issues.

Google released a paper that shook the crypto industry on March 30, suggesting that a quantum computer could potentially crack the cryptography protecting Bitcoin (BTC) using far fewer resources than previously thought.

Grayscale head of research Zach Pandl, however, suggested the problem for Bitcoin doesn’t come from its technical solution, as “bitcoin has lower risk than other cryptocurrencies” because it uses a UTXO model and proof-of-work consensus, does not have native smart contracts and certain address types are not quantum vulnerable.

Instead, the challenge would be for the community to reach a decision on the way forward, said Pandl. 

The Bitcoin community has been fiercely debating what to do about old dormant coins, particularly the roughly 1.7 million BTC locked in early P2PK addresses, including Satoshi’s estimated 1 million BTC stash, currently worth about $68 billion. 

The Bitcoin community has three options 

The Bitcoin community needs to decide what to do about coins where the private key has been lost or is otherwise inaccessible, wrote Pandl. 

They have three main options: burning the coins, deliberately slowing their release by limiting the rate of spending from vulnerable addresses or doing nothing. 

“All are conceptually doable, but the challenge is reaching a decision, and the Bitcoin community has a history of contentious debates over protocol changes, including last year’s dispute around image data stored in blocks.”

Pandl was referring to a big fracas that erupted in 2023 over the use of blockspace for Bitcoin Ordinals, technology that enables inscribing data such as text and images to a satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin. 

Two years later, the debate may have quietened down, but the two sides continue to hold opposing views.

Related: Researchers say quantum computers could, in theory, be ready by 2030

No threat now but time to get started

Pandl cautioned that it was “time to get started” and that blockchains need to adopt post-quantum cryptography, echoing the sentiment from Google. 

Both Solana and the XRP Ledger are already experimenting with post-quantum cryptography, wrote Pandl. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation released its post-quantum roadmap in February.

Pandl concluded that investors “should not fret” for now, but it is time to accelerate efforts to prepare for our post-quantum future. 

“In our view, there is no security threat to public blockchains from quantum computers today.”

Magazine: Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work