SEC Proposes Blockchain Overhaul of 1970s-Era Transfer Agent Rules, a Bitcoin (BTC) Era Milestone

SEC Targets 1970s-Era Transfer Agent Rules

The US Securities and Exchange Commission on September 1 put forward a package of proposed rule changes designed to drag registered transfer agents into the digital age, and the text names blockchain technology outright. Transfer agents — the intermediaries that maintain issuer records, process share transfers and sit at the core of US clearing and settlement infrastructure — currently operate under rules the SEC itself describes as largely drafted between the late 1970s and the early 1980s and never comprehensively overhauled since. The proposal would explicitly accommodate electronic communications, digital recordkeeping systems and blockchain technology in connection with securities issuance and share transfers, giving distributed-ledger records — shared books validated by a consensus mechanism rather than a single intermediary — a recognized place inside federal securities plumbing. SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins framed the effort as one that would better reflect transfer agents' current processes and operations, with specific attention to blockchain use tied to issuances and transfers. Jamie Selway, Director of the agency's Division of Trading and Markets, added that changing technology and competitive market conditions now require a reassessment of the older regulations, calling the proposal a significant part of the SEC's broader modernization push. Mechanically, the package would amend a set of existing rules and forms, rescind one regulation entirely, and establish new rules governing the activities of registered transfer agents, which the SEC said now offer a far wider range of services than the existing framework fully covers. The proposal was published on the SEC's website and is slated for the Federal Register; the public comment window will remain open for 60 days once that publication occurs. No effective date exists yet — this is a proposal, and the text can still change.

Japan's FSA Moves on Trust Stablecoin Paperwork

Regulators in Japan are running a parallel exercise on the settlement side. On August 31, the Financial Services Agency published its tax reform requests for fiscal 2027, and under its “promotion of financial innovation” item it asks that certain filings be waived for specific trust beneficiary rights — the legal wrapper behind Japan's trust-type stablecoins. Under current rules, when a trust's beneficiary changes, the trustee must file a beneficiary register and trust computation statements with tax authorities. The FSA argues those obligations fit poorly with a payment instrument designed to move between unspecified users in frequent, high-volume transfers: the trustee cannot realistically track who holds the token, and holding it is not expected to generate income. The request therefore seeks measures making such filings unnecessary in defined cases. The practical backdrop is concrete. On June 24, 2026, SBI Shinsei Trust Bank brought JPYSC, a yen-denominated trust-type stablecoin structured with SBI VC Trade as commissioner and initial beneficiary, to market — the first trust-type yen stablecoin issued under Japan's electronic payment means regime. As of September 1, 2026, JPYSC remains confined to SBI VC Trade accounts with no external wallet withdrawals, and the group has said public-chain circulation will follow only once the governing laws and tax practice are settled and supervisor confirmation obtained. Broader public-chain distribution would raise further operational questions — from cross-chain bridges linking networks and blockchain oracle models feeding off-chain data on-chain, to maximal extractable value, the value extractable by reordering transactions — but the FSA's move targets the tax-filing mismatch first. Notably, the request is not a tax cut: it changes trustee paperwork, not user rates, and also covers separate measures to designate certain foreign-issued trust-type stablecoins as electronic payment means under the regime effective June 1, 2026. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Bitget.

Shared Ledgers, Shared Regulatory Thread

Our read: the two actions form one arc — regulators retrofitting rulebooks written for paper-era intermediaries so that blockchain records can function inside mainstream settlement. The SEC item is a proposal with a 60-day comment window, not a final rule; the FSA item is an annual tax request, not enacted law, and Japan's ruling bloc must still fold it into the year-end tax outline. For a market that began with Bitcoin (BTC)'s 2009 genesis block, explicit federal recognition of blockchain-based recordkeeping inside securities infrastructure is a symbolic threshold — and, if finalized, a meaningful step toward treating digitally native assets, from governance tokens to tokenized deposits, as ordinary settlement objects. Watch the Federal Register publication date and Tokyo's year-end tax outline for the next concrete triggers.