The SEC's crypto capital and records rule for brokers reached the White House on November 3

What happened

The SEC has sent a crypto rule for brokers to the White House. According to the federal regulatory dashboard reginfo.gov, OIRA received a proposed rule titled "Amendments to Broker-Dealer Financial Responsibility and Recordkeeping and Reporting Rules Regarding Crypto Assets" on November 3, 2026.

The listing gives it regulation number RIN 3235-AN48, marks it as a proposed rule, flags it as economically significant and shows its review status as pending. There is no legal deadline. OIRA is the office inside the White House budget office that reviews major federal rules before they are published.

The text itself is not public. It will only appear once the SEC votes to propose it and opens it for public comment.

What these rules cover

Broker-dealers are the firms that buy and sell securities for customers. Their "financial responsibility" rules decide how much liquid capital they must hold and how they must protect customer assets. The two best known are the net capital rule (Rule 15c3-1) and the customer protection rule (Rule 15c3-3), which the SEC amended in a 2013 package. The recordkeeping and reporting rules set what books a firm must keep and what it must file.

The proposal's title says it changes both groups for crypto assets. Which exact rules it touches, and how, will not be known until the text is released.

Where SEC staff already stand

SEC staff have been answering these questions one by one in a Trading and Markets FAQ on crypto assets, first published May 15, 2025, and last updated February 19, 2026.

• Capital: staff will not object if a broker-dealer treats a proprietary bitcoin or ether position as readily marketable and applies the 20% haircut used for commodities. A haircut is the share of an asset's value a firm cannot count toward its capital.
• Stablecoins: a newer answer, added February 19, 2026, says staff will not object to a 2% haircut on payment stablecoin positions.
• Customer assets: staff noted that the reserve part of the customer protection rule applies only to securities, and gave relief on where crypto asset securities can be held.
• Records: a firm could keep the same records for its non-security crypto activity as for its securities business.

The FAQ says these are staff views, not Commission rules, and create no new obligations. A formal rule would make them binding and harder to reverse.

Part of a wider custody push

This is the second crypto rule proposal the SEC has moved this fall. On October 1, 2026, it proposed rules on how investment advisers and funds can hold crypto assets. The broker-dealer proposal covers a different group of firms: the ones that trade and hold assets for retail and institutional customers.

What happens next

OIRA review has no fixed length in the listing. After it ends, the Commission can vote to publish the proposal. A public comment period would follow, and then a final rule would need another vote. Nothing changes for broker-dealers until a final rule takes effect.

What's next

• The Commission vote to propose the rule and the published text
• How long the comment period runs
• Whether the proposal covers tokenized securities and non-security crypto assets differently