Altcoins News

Story: SEC Moves to Kill Two Decades-Old Equity Rules, Crypto Markets Watch Closely

By Jean-Luc Maracon

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What the SEC Says Is Broken. The commission's position is pretty straightforward.

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Comment Period Opens, Timeline Murky. Right now the proposal is open for public comment. The SEC is actively soliciting views from…

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The SEC wants to tear up two of its own rules. Specifically, it's proposing to rescind Rules 611 and 610(e) of Regulation NMS — a pair of regulations that have shaped how U.S.

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Rule 611, widely called the "Order Protection Rule," forces trading centers to avoid filling orders at prices worse than protected quotations available elsewhere in the market.

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But the SEC now thinks these rules have outlived their usefulness — or worse, that they're actively making things harder.

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The commission's position is pretty straightforward. Markets have changed a lot since these rules first went live nearly two decades ago. Trading technology has moved fast.

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Critics of the rules — and there have been plenty over the years — have long argued that the Order Protection Rule in particular forces brokers and trading centers into awkward…

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Removing 610(e) alongside 611 makes sense from a structural standpoint. The two rules are intertwined.

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The SEC thinks doing so would make market interactions more straightforward and cut trading costs. That's the pitch, anyway.

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More context: AI Trading Tools Grab Market Share as Crypto Runs 24/7 in 2026

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Right now the proposal is open for public comment. The SEC is actively soliciting views from market participants, industry groups, and anyone else with a stake in how equity…

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No timeline has been set for a final decision. The SEC didn't give a date for when the comment period closes, and it hasn't said when — or even if — the changes would take effect.

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For crypto markets, the move is worth watching even if it doesn't touch digital assets directly. Equity market structure debates have a habit of spilling over.

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And the broader signal here matters. The SEC is willing to revisit rules it put in place nearly twenty years ago and say, flat out, that they've caused problems.

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Read also: Japan Cuts Crypto Tax to 20% as Lower House Backs Securities-Style Rules

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