7 May 2026 — Nasdaq President Tal Cohen used a prominent stage at Consensus Miami to declare that a transformed US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is giving markets the room they need to innovate. The regulatory shift, he said, marks the end of an era in which legal uncertainty made blockchain development all but impossible.
"The gray zone four years ago was a no-fly zone," Cohen told the Consensus audience.
His remarks arrive amid a wave of concrete SEC policy changes and a crypto market that appears to be taking notice.
Between 2022 and 2024, the SEC under former Chair Gary Gensler pursued aggressive enforcement against major crypto players, filing lawsuits against Binance, Coinbase, and Ripple while labeling numerous digital assets unregistered securities. The campaign cast a long shadow over product development and institutional participation alike.
That posture has changed significantly following Gensler's departure and the appointment of more crypto-receptive leadership in late 2025. By early 2026, the SEC had dropped enforcement cases against both Binance and Coinbase, removed crypto assets from its 2026 examination priorities, and refocused its oversight agenda on cybersecurity and market integrity.
Additional regulatory movement has reinforced the shift
The SEC approved WisdomTree's money market fund (MMF), a structure that allows shares to trade at a stable $1.00 throughout the day, bypassing the end-of-day net asset value (NAV) settlement that traditional funds require. The agency has also eased capital requirements for firms holding stablecoins and accelerated its ETF review processes. Separately, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) cleared banks to handle blockchain gas fees — the transaction costs required to execute operations on a blockchain network — on behalf of clients, subject to risk controls.
Nasdaq listed the first Bitcoin futures ETFs in 2021
Cohen's comments align with Nasdaq's own trajectory in the space. The exchange listed the first Bitcoin futures ETFs in 2021 and has been exploring tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), financial instruments such as bonds or funds represented as digital tokens on a blockchain. The current regulatory environment, Cohen suggested, makes that work meaningfully easier.
Macro conditions offer a counterweight to the optimism. US jobless claims came in at 61,000 for the period, slightly below the 62,000 forecast, reinforcing a low-hiring, low-layoffs labor market dynamic. The CME FedWatch tool placed the probability of the Federal Reserve holding rates steady at its June meeting at 96%, up from 93.9%, limiting near-term expectations for monetary easing.
The SEC has also indicated it is still reviewing digital prediction market ETFs before moving forward, a reminder that the agency's new approach involves deliberate reform rather than blanket approval.
Meme Coins 2026: How "Jokes" Became a Nearly $60B Crypto Sector | Crypto Watch Desk