Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. And thank you, Luisa [del Rosal], for your generous introduction. Of course, I should also like to thank the Economic Club of Dallas for having me today. Texas is a place where First Principles have clearly found fertile ground, so there is no better place to reflect on the SEC’s return to them than in a state that is setting the standard.
Before I go any further, however, I must note the customary disclaimer that the views I express here are my own as SEC Chairman and not necessarily those of the SEC as an institution or of the other Commissioner.
Returning to First Principles
My priority as SEC Chairman is straightforward: to ensure that America’s capital markets remain the deepest, most competitive, and most innovative in the world, while maintaining the highest degree of investor protection.
To do so, we are returning the agency to First Principles.
Those principles were established 250 years ago, when our Founders declared the right of a free people to govern themselves; to forge their own destiny through industry and enterprise; to wager everything on an idea and enjoy the fruit of their endeavor; and to allow the forces of competition—rather than top-down, centralized control—to elevate the most effective innovation. Their conviction was simple, yet powerful enough to build a nation: to trust the individual, not the institution.
Every passing generation is handed the same high calling: to remind our fellow citizens of those ideals, and to live up to them. For the SEC, answering that calling means remaining faithful to our original mission: rooting our disclosure regime in materiality, promoting transparent rulemaking, protecting investors from fraud, and ensuring that America’s capital markets remain the unrivaled destination for entrepreneurs and investors alike.
Too often in the recent past, the agency’s regulatory approach drifted from following the plain letter of the law and from the founding ideals that propelled a young republic to such remarkable success. Rules were sculpted for political and social pursuits rather than grounded in First Principles. Enforcement became a shadow policy instrument that threatened innovators more than it thwarted wrongdoers. Disclosure obligations, designed to inform investors about what is material, were quietly redirected toward what regulators found merely interesting—or worse, to cater to the demands of special interest groups. And for digital assets—potentially one of the most consequential financial frontiers of our time—uncertainty became the standard.
Innovators did not pause for clear policy. They simply took their products overseas, and American investors followed them into markets with fewer protections. Rather than update antiquated rules to accommodate new technologies, the Commission treated those rules as immutable. The consequences of that choice are now plain to see—Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX are but one example—and the mandate before us is never more urgent.
Thankfully, the path forward is illuminated by the light of the past—by the proven approach of the generations of Americans who have gone before us. So, in this milestone year for our nation, we at the SEC are doing what our Founders trusted us to do: returning the agency to First Principles and clearing the regulatory overgrowth that has hindered the prosperity of our capital markets.
Strengthening America’s Capital Markets
Today, I should like to discuss three areas where the Commission is advancing that work: revitalizing the public markets, establishing a workable framework for digital assets, and restoring regulatory certainty through rulemaking grounded in the SEC’s statutory mission.
Taken together, these initiatives reflect a broader conviction that has long sustained American economic success: that markets perform best when regulation is clear, predictable, committed to investor protection, and conducive to capital formation.
Making IPOs Great Again
Let me begin with a problem that should concern every market participant: that is, the decades-long, steep decline in the number of public companies. Over the years, the burdens and complexities of public company status have become nearly insurmountable for new companies, and often unsustainable for those already listed. That is why the centerpiece of our work is my plan to “Make IPOs Great Again.”
Earlier this year, the SEC proposed giving public companies the option of semi-annual reporting in lieu of quarterly reports—a step that would provide both large and small companies with increased regulatory flexibility and lower costs, while continuing to ensure that investors receive material information necessary to make sound decisions.
The Commission then followed with two proposals that anchor the IPO revitalization agenda: namely, registered offering reform and filer status reform. If adopted, these proposals would help companies access capital more efficiently, respond to favorable market conditions more easily, and align disclosure requirements more closely with a company’s size and maturity—relieving companies of some of the most onerous SEC requirements, while retaining those essential to informed investment.
Building on these efforts, we also proposed to rescind the prior administration's ill-advised climate rule—re-tethering our rulebook to the simple truth that the SEC exists to serve all investors, not to advance the agendas of a politicized few.
Collectively, these steps mark a decisive return to a proven principle: that investors deserve material information, and companies deserve a regulatory framework that invites them into the public markets rather than pushes them away. So, with materiality as our metric, we are clearing the path to going public so that it is once again a growing company’s goal—not its last resort.
And, I am pleased to report that the environment that we are creating is producing real results. From the beginning of 2025 through the first half of 2026, more than 580 companies have gone public, up 75 percent from the final year and a half of the Biden administration. And those companies raised an impressive $208 billion—nearly four times the amount raised in the final year and a half of the prior administration. In Texas alone, there have been 47 IPOs—representing more than 10 percent of the IPOs across the entire country.
Most importantly, every new IPO represents more than a public listing. It is another invitation for individuals to participate in the next generation of American enterprise.
Digital Assets
That same spirit of access and opportunity guides our second major priority: developing a rational regulatory framework for digital assets.
For too long, digital asset entrepreneurs operated under significant uncertainty, unsure how the federal securities laws applied to the rapidly evolving industry, and trying to follow rules that were written one enforcement action at a time. That approach served neither investors nor innovators.
But those days are over. Through Project Crypto, we have provided greater clarity regarding where the securities laws apply to crypto assets, and where they do not. We acknowledged what the SEC had long refused to recognize: that most crypto assets are not themselves securities. In doing so, we gave digital asset issuers, investors, and entrepreneurs the ability to know, before they act, whether the Commission considers a digital asset a security.
In August, we built on that clarity with our proposed “Regulation Crypto Assets,” which would provide crypto innovators the first bespoke pathways to raise capital in America. And most recently, our “Innovation Exemption” opened the door to certain forms of onchain trading of tokenized securities within an appropriately regulated framework.
Our central objective behind each of these initiatives is clear: through coherent rules, we are seeking to establish a comprehensive, tailored securities offering regime that addresses long-standing barriers to responsible capital formation and innovation. And, there is still more to come.
Corporate Governance
Now, as we act within our authority to restore the agency to First Principles, we have also proposed returning authority over matters of corporate governance to its rightful place: with the states.
Our proposal to rescind Rule 14a-8 reflects the notion that, absent specific authorization from Congress, the Commission simply cannot dictate which matters qualify for a shareholder vote. That question belongs squarely to the State in which a company is domiciled. Yet, for years, in fact, since 1942, the Commission has meddled in this process and arrogated to itself authority it did not have.
If adopted, rescinding the rule should give States, including Texas, both the legal clarity and the lasting confidence to implement their own ideas for a sensible shareholder proposal framework, sparking the forces of competition to help them attract more companies.
Since America’s earliest days, competition has always been our engine for innovation and progress. And it does not pause for tradition, nor defer to legacy practices. Over time, it compels systems, and states, to adapt—or to yield. Through competition, good ideas spread, poor ones grow dim, and the system itself grows stronger.
Texas’s Leadership
Perhaps nowhere is that better illustrated than right here, today, in Texas. With a legislature that has taken steps aimed at reducing extraneous costs of being a public company, alongside a newly established Business Court, Texas is harnessing the American spirit of competition to build something worth watching—something worth emulating. In light of this, I would be remiss not to take a moment to commend the private and public leaders who have cultivated such an exemplary business-friendly environment, and to congratulate you on the accompanying growth.
As I have said about this state before, if Texas builds it, they will come.[1] And indeed they are. Since 2018, Dallas has led all U.S. metros in corporate headquarters relocations, with roughly 100 companies moving in.[2] Similarly, companies are increasingly reincorporating in Texas, such as Tesla[3], SpaceX[4], Coinbase[5], and ExxonMobil[6], which had been incorporated in New Jersey since 1882. Texas has also shown that capital markets can emerge naturally from a broader groundswell of economic growth, attracting major exchanges like NYSE and Nasdaq to launch operations in the area. And, of course, as the Southeast Quadrant’s only listings venue for corporate issuers and exchange-traded products, the Texas Stock Exchange is as much a legacy of the state’s ascent as it is a catalyst for its continuation.
On nearly every front, Texas is leading—and corporate boardrooms around the globe are taking note.
Conclusion
In closing, the reforms that we are pursuing under my Chairmanship represent something larger than a regulatory agenda—they herald the SEC's homecoming to the First Principles that have made Texas’s rise so extraordinary. In many ways, Texas reflects the best of what we are working toward in Washington: capital markets where American enterprise flourishes, and with them the American people whom we serve.
To quote our second President and Founder John Adams—whose 291st birthday happens to be today:
“Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.”[7]
Indeed, may we heed his wisdom and, for as many days as we dwell in this free land, preserve the First Principles that President Adams and his compatriots helped to define and to defend. Let us do so not only as regulators, but as entrepreneurs, as innovators, as Americans, and yes, dare I say, for you all, of course, as Texans.
Thank you very much for your time and attention this afternoon. I look forward to discussing these matters in greater detail in the conversation ahead.
[1] Field of Dreams (Universal Pictures 1989)
[5]https://www.reuters.com/business/coinbase-set-reincorporate-texas-2025-11-12/
[7]https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-5238
Last Reviewed or Updated: Oct. 30, 2026