In 2025, the SEC's shift towards structured innovation in cryptocurrency regulation will have a mixed impact on the global cryptocurrency market, bringing both opportunities for funding and compliance, as well as market volatility and regulatory divergence. The specifics are as follows:

1. Attracting global cryptocurrency capital back: The SEC has simplified the approval process for cryptocurrency spot ETFs and introduced an innovation exemption policy lasting 12 to 24 months, significantly reducing compliance costs for cryptocurrency projects. This has led to a return of cryptocurrency projects and capital that had previously flowed out due to regulatory ambiguity back to the United States, while also attracting traditional financial institutions like JPMorgan to enter the market, injecting incremental funds into the global cryptocurrency market.

2. Causing short-term market volatility and divergent asset trends: On one hand, the SEC's announcement that defines certain cryptocurrency assets as securities often triggers significant drops, with related assets falling by up to 12% within a week; on the other hand, compliance expectations benefit mainstream cryptocurrencies, such as LTC and SOL, which already have futures contracts and meet the rapid implementation conditions for spot ETFs, resulting in more stable price movements, while smaller coins and non-compliant projects continue to be marginalized by the market.

3. Promoting a differentiated global regulatory game: The SEC's flexible regulatory model contrasts sharply with the EU's MiCA regulations, which feature a pre-authorization model. This forces multinational cryptocurrency companies to adopt a “one country, one policy” compliance strategy, while regions like Singapore and Dubai take the opportunity to strengthen innovation-friendly policies, presenting a competitive landscape of global cryptocurrency regulation characterized by “U.S. and European dominance with regional differentiation,” exacerbating regulatory fragmentation.

4. Accelerating the compliance transformation of the cryptocurrency industry: The SEC has clarified the token classification system and decentralized testing standards, providing cryptocurrency projects with a clear compliance “graduation” pathway. This has prompted global cryptocurrency platforms, DeFi protocols, and others to push for compliance transformations such as KYC and risk warnings, while compliance token standards like ERC-3643 are expected to gradually become mainstream in the industry, driving the sector away from barbaric growth.

5. Impacting the core principle of decentralization: The innovation exemption policy requires projects to adhere to investor protection measures and to adopt specific technology compliance standards. This has forced some DeFi projects to introduce intermediary review mechanisms, and the mandatory compliance transformation conflicts with the core spirit of cryptocurrency decentralization, raising industry concerns about “excessive regulation of decentralized assets.” $BTC #美SEC推动加密创新监管