Taylor Lindman, chief counsel to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force, said the agency is working to make established financial firms comfortable holding and transacting in crypto, with custody forming part of that foundation. Lindman made the remarks on 22 September at CoinDesk’s Policy & Regulation event in Washington, according to CoinDesk’s report of the session. No official transcript was publicly available at the time of writing.
For broker-dealers and registered investment advisers, the signal is practical. The SEC is considering how firms can hold non-security crypto assets inside a broker-dealer and where advisers can place client crypto, including with certain state-chartered trust companies.
What Taylor Lindman Said and Where
Lindman described the agency’s work as an effort to bring existing securities intermediaries into a market where they can use blockchain and handle both security and non-security crypto assets. “The big picture with this is we’re trying to assimilate the existing securities intermediaries and our existing market participants into a world where they feel comfortable utilizing blockchain,” he said, as quoted by CoinDesk.
He called the work “foundation laying.” CoinDesk reported that an investment-adviser custody proposal is under White House review, while a broker-dealer proposal remains in the SEC’s pipeline. The direction follows the Crypto Task Force’s custody roundtable, where participants debated private-key control, qualified custodians and the treatment of different assets.
The Custody Problem in Plain Terms
Three questions sit underneath the policy debate. A registered adviser must generally keep client funds and securities with a qualified custodian. A broker-dealer carrying customer securities must maintain possession or control under its customer-protection obligations. Both models also depend on segregation, meaning customer property must be identifiable and protected from use for the firm’s own account.
Crypto complicates each question because control follows access to cryptographic keys, while legal ownership and access may be split among several firms. Network forks, airdrops, protocol failures and asset freezes add risks not contemplated by conventional securities rules.
The SEC staff has already offered limited routes through that problem. A December 2025 staff statement described how a broker-dealer could demonstrate possession of crypto asset securities, including direct transfer capability, network-risk reviews, controls preventing unauthorized key use and continuity plans. A September 2025 no-action letter also allowed advisers, subject to detailed conditions, to treat a qualifying state trust company as a bank for custody purposes. Neither document is a rule or a guarantee of compliance.
What Changes for Broker-Dealers and RIAs
For a broker-dealer, a formal proposal could turn the staff’s interim approach into a clearer standard. Firms would still need documented control of transfers, network-security assessments and disruption procedures. They may no longer need special-purpose registration merely to carry a non-security crypto asset, the issue Lindman highlighted.
For an RIA, the key question is which entities count as qualified custodians. The existing no-action position expects checks on a trust company’s authority, finances and controls, plus written segregation terms and limits on lending or pledging client assets. Fidelity has separately asked the SEC for clearer treatment of crypto trading and custody. A rule could add certainty without removing those tests.
That distinction matters when evaluating Anchorage Digital, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets or another provider. Regulatory status is only one test. Firms still need evidence about key governance, segregation, incident response and network events.
How This Fits With Regulation Crypto Assets
Custody is only one layer of the SEC’s broader rulemaking. Regulation Crypto Assets, published in the Federal Register on 21 August under File No. S7-2026-27, addresses offers and sales. The notice states: “Comments should be received on or before October 20, 2026.”
The proposal includes a Securities Act exemption for offerings of up to $5 million over four years and another for up to $75 million in a 12-month period. It also proposes a conditional safe harbor for certain investment-contract transactions, tied to disclosure and other requirements. Our review of the October comment deadline explains those routes in more detail.
Together, the projects divide the problem into stages. Regulation Crypto Assets addresses how tokens may be offered and when a safe harbor may apply. Custody work addresses who can hold assets after issuance or purchase, what control means and how customer property must be protected. The SEC and CFTC are also pursuing a wider crypto harmonization program.
What Is Still Unresolved
No proposed custody text was public when Lindman spoke, so firms do not yet have final definitions, compliance dates or transition arrangements. It is also unclear how the SEC will distinguish custody of crypto asset securities from non-securities across broker-dealer and adviser rules, or how far a firm may rely on a third-party technology provider without surrendering control.
Leadership timing adds another variable. Commissioner Hester Peirce, who leads the Crypto Task Force, is due to leave the SEC in November 2026. That does not establish that the commission will lose its ability to act: a 1995 SEC rule provides a mechanism for business when fewer than three commissioners are in office, although its use in the present circumstances is untested.
Lindman’s comments are a direction of travel, not permission to launch. Firms can map each asset’s legal treatment, document who can move it, test segregation in normal operations and insolvency, and study the custody proposals when they appear. Those controls will matter whichever route the SEC adopts.