Sources said that Wall Street opposition forced the SEC to suspend the cryptocurrency financing fram

The ongoing debate on cryptocurrency policy in Washington, D.C. has added a new plot. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday abruptly canceled a meeting that was supposed to initiate the formal rulemaking process for a new framework called "Regulation Crypto Assets" that aims to regulate cryptocurrency financing in the United States.

The meeting, announced only three days ago, is widely seen as securities regulators 'initiative to lay the foundation for clearer encryption rules while the industry's landmark legislation, the Clarity Act, is still pending. The bill remains on hold because lawmakers will not return until after the recess ends in mid-September.

An SEC spokesman attributed the cancellation of the meeting to "unforeseen scheduling issues" but did not provide further details.

However, after talking to well-informed people in the cryptocurrency policy community, you will hear more details involving the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and Taiwan officials.

First, the background is as follows: Over the past year, SIFMA, which represents major Wall Street brokers, investment banks and asset management companies, has repeatedly opposed widespread regulatory easing for cryptocurrency and tokenized securities companies. In a June 2025 letter, the group urged the SEC not to make major changes to rules in tokenized securities and other securities market areas through no-action letters or exemptions. Instead, it called for a public notification and comment process and warned that broad remedies could trigger regulatory arbitrage, weaken investor protection and lead to market liquidity dispersion.

The SEC's Cryptocurrency Task Force has been studying for months an innovative exemption that could give crypto companies greater flexibility when trading tokenized securities without having to be subject to all the rules that apply to traditional Wall Street firms. According to Bloomberg, the agency had considered releasing relevant details on Friday and could also release its proposed cryptocurrency financing framework. Unlike the financing proposal, this innovation exemption will rely on the SEC's existing exemptions rather than through a formal rulemaking process.

Several industry sources who have conversations with Crypto In America said that Taiwanese officials asked the SEC to postpone last Friday's meeting due to concerns that "crypto asset regulation" and a separate innovation exemption could complicate negotiations on the Clarification Act ahead of the Senate's procedural vote in September. The bill covers both cryptocurrency financing and tokenized securities.

But there may be another layer of truth to this story.

According to two people familiar with the matter, SIFMA has discussed possible legal action if it determines that the SEC has exceeded its legal authority under federal securities laws, including relief through exemptions or inaction. Sources said the possibility of legal challenges may have prompted Taiwan officials to decide to ask the SEC to suspend actions and cancel meetings.

When asked about discussions about potential legal challenges, a SIFMA spokesperson declined to comment, saying: "SIFMA does not comment on plausible or hypothetical theories. In this particular situation, it's too early to comment on something that doesn't yet exist."

Taiwan officials and the SEC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

It is unclear whether the SEC will reschedule meetings before the Senate resumes next month.

At the same time, Taiwan's official and top regulators in the cryptocurrency field are expected to continue to advance policy discussions this week, with separate events held on Wednesday and Thursday.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Michael Selig will attend an official Taiwanese event on Wednesday, joining executives from the cryptocurrency, prediction markets and traditional finance sectors, where President Trump is expected to speak.

Industry leaders expected to attend include Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (Brian Armstrong), Ripple CEO Brad Garinhaus Brad Garlinghouse, Gemini founder Taylor Winklevoss Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss Cameron Winklevoss, Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sisi (Arjun Sethi), a16z cryptocurrency management partner Chris Dixon (Chris Dixon), BitGo CEO Mike Belcher (Mike Belshe), Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain.com (Peter Smith), Shane Copeland, CEO of Polymarket (Shayne Coplan), Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, Chainlink CEO Sergey Nazarov, Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeff Sprecher and Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman are among others.

On Thursday, Selig will chair the first meeting of the CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee, whose 43-member committee includes the above-mentioned executives. Walt Lukken, president and CEO of the Futures Industry Association, will serve as chairman of the committee. The meeting agenda includes the growing role of cryptocurrency regulation, artificial intelligence and proxy finance, and of course forecasting markets.

At the same time, lawmakers and their staff are expected to continue negotiations on outstanding issues under the Clarification Act before a scheduled closing debate vote on the afternoon of September 15. The DeFi and Developer Protection Provisions, provisions in parts of the bill for which the Senate Agriculture Committee is responsible, and a code of ethics for government officials are still pending.

Negotiators also need to deal with continued lobbying from the banking industry to amend the bill's stablecoin yield provisions. Despite the pressure, CEOs of some of the largest U.S. banks, including Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and Citi CEO Jane Fraser, supported passage of the broader legislation.

"We haven't given up pushing for some improvements to the bill, but we want to see a good bill pass," Fraser said in an interview with Fox Business Channel last week. "I think it will be excellent for the system as a whole."