U.S. Chamber Backs SEC Innovation Exemption, Urges Final Rule

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the Securities and Exchange Commission's newly released Innovation Exemption, calling it "one of the most significant changes to the U.S. capital markets system." The statement came from Mike Flood, senior vice president of the Chamber's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness.

The SEC's Innovation Exemption is a new framework for digital assets. It drew an immediate, and largely positive, response from the country's largest business lobbying organization. The Chamber did not simply applaud. It set conditions.

"We urge the agency to proceed in an open, collaborative, and deliberative manner, as we will be carefully monitoring the progress of and commenting on its newly released Innovation Exemption," Flood said.

The Chamber's position carries weight for a simple reason: most public companies in the United States are its members. Those companies, according to the Chamber's statement, "have an important role in deciding the availability of their shares to trade under this set of new rules." In practice, the exemption's reach will depend on whether issuers choose to let their securities trade under the new framework.

The stakes, as the Chamber frames them, are high. "The Chamber's goal is to ensure that it strengthens — and does not weaken — the most liquid and respected capital markets system in the world," Flood said.

That phrasing signals a guarded endorsement rather than unconditional support. The group welcomes the SEC's commitment to digital asset innovation. It also reserves the right to push back through formal comment letters if the exemption's implementation threatens market quality.

The Chamber's call for a final rulemaking process — open, collaborative and deliberative — now puts the burden on the SEC to convert the exemption from a released framework into durable regulation. How the agency drafts the final rules, and whether issuers opt in, will determine whether the Innovation Exemption becomes a structural shift in U.S. capital markets or a narrow pathway used by few.