Adviser and Regulated Fund Custody Rules; Crypto Custody Rules
Key claim: The SEC is proposing rules that would tell investment advisers and mutual funds how they must hold clients’ cryptocurrency and other assets, while updating older custody, recordkeeping, and disclosure forms.
Abstract
(Proposed Rule · Securities and Exchange Commission) The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission” or the “SEC”) is proposing new custody rules under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “Investment Company Act”) and amendments to related reporting and recordkeeping requirements to address how regulated investment companies may custody crypto securities and similar investments, and amendments to the custody rule and related reporting and recordkeeping rules under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”) to address how registered investment advisers may custody client crypto funds and securities. We are also proposing to amend the current custody rules to modernize their requirements, to better address current industry practices and feedback, and to implement certain conforming amendments. We are also proposing amendments to the recordkeeping rules under the Investment Company Act and Advisers Act related to these proposed modernization amendments to the custody rules. Additionally, we are proposing to redesignate the custody rule under the Advisers Act and to make corresponding amendments to Form ADV and Form ADV-E for registered investment advisers to reflect the Advisers Act custody rule redesignation. We are also proposing amendments to Form ADV for registered investment advisers and Form N-CEN for regulated investment companies and to improve the quality of public disclosures made on these forms. We are also proposing to add new questions to Form ADV and Form N-CEN related to tokenized private funds and regulated investment company shares, respectively.
Why this matters
Custody is the operational gating item for whether traditional advisers and mutual funds can hold crypto for clients at scale; a formal SEC framework would resolve longstanding uncertainty that has kept many regulated intermediaries on the sidelines. The parallel modernization of Advisers Act and Investment Company Act custody, recordkeeping, and disclosure rules also touches every registered adviser and fund, not just crypto-active ones. Because the package is still at the proposal stage, the practical effect depends on which elements survive to a final rule.