White House review office takes up SEC draft on crypto broker-dealer rules

What happened

The White House's regulatory review office has taken in a draft Securities and Exchange Commission rule that would revise how the agency's broker-dealer financial responsibility and recordkeeping requirements apply to crypto assets. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which sits inside the Office of Management and Budget, entered the item into the federal review record on Nov. 3, as reported by Unchained and CoinGape.

The entry is titled Amendments to Broker-Dealer Financial Responsibility and Recordkeeping and Reporting Rules Regarding Crypto Assets and is listed at the proposed rule stage. OIRA classified the submission as economically significant, a designation reserved for items expected to carry substantial economic weight. CoinGape noted the filing carries regulatory identifier 3235-AN48. The review record sets no legal deadline for the office to finish its work.

What the draft would actually change remains undisclosed. Neither the review record nor the SEC's regulatory agenda describes the substance of the amendments, and the proposal's text has not been released. CoinGape reported that no documents exist that would show a reduction in any particular capital or recordkeeping obligation, despite characterizations of the effort as an easing of requirements. Existing obligations for registered broker-dealers are unchanged while the draft sits in review.

Why it matters

The four rules named in the SEC's agenda govern how much capital a brokerage must hold, how it must segregate and safeguard customer assets, and which records it must create and keep. How those requirements treat digital tokens determines whether broker-dealers can carry crypto alongside stocks and bonds, and on what terms. Firms already operating in the space, including SEC-registered brokers handling tokenized equities, would be directly affected by any change.

The OIRA entry is an early procedural step rather than a final decision, and it does not by itself alter any rule. Still, the filing shows the proposal has left the agency and entered executive branch review, a gate that significant rules pass through before public release. The review record confirms only that a draft exists and where it now sits.

What the data shows

According to the SEC's agenda entry, a division of the agency was considering recommending that the Commission amend Rules 15c3-1 and 15c3-3, along with other broker-dealer financial responsibility rules, plus Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4, to address how they apply to crypto assets. Rule 15c3-1 is the net capital rule; 15c3-3 is the customer protection rule covering reserves and custody of securities; and 17a-3 and 17a-4 set which records firms must make and preserve. The entry cites sections 15(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Exchange Act as legal authority and had set July 2026 as the timetable for a proposal.

Background

The broker-dealer draft follows the SEC's Oct. 1 proposal of a custody framework for crypto held by registered investment advisers and regulated funds, which would also permit state trust companies to serve as custodians. That earlier proposal addressed who may hold client crypto; the current draft concerns the financial and recordkeeping side of broker-dealer operations.

In September, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency would write crypto rules under its existing authority with or without new legislation, after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate, Unchained reported. CoinGape also noted that Securitize recently expanded its tokenized stock offering to 25 equities, traded through the SEC-registered broker Securitize Markets for US customers, with the addition of 13 names including Disney, Salesforce and ExxonMobil. The shares are issued on Solana in USDC and backed by underlying stock, and the company says trading can extend beyond regular market hours.

What to watch

The next visible marker is the completion of OIRA review and publication of the draft's text, which would reveal whether the amendments loosen, tighten or merely clarify the four rules. Also worth watching is whether the final proposal matches the scope described in the agenda, how the comment period unfolds, and how the broker-dealer amendments interact with the separate custody framework proposed in October. An SEC spokesperson told Bloomberg the commission expects to consider rules suited to crypto markets, but no timing has been announced.

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