Last month’s SEC reforms would, in theory, turn the U.S. stock market—especially small- and mid-cap stocks—into a super casino resembling the crypto market of 2023. - Raise the public float threshold for large accelerated filers from $700 million to $2 billion. - Grant new public companies a five-year IPO grace period, during which they receive simplified disclosure requirements regardless of market capitalization. - Formally propose allowing public companies to replace quarterly reports with optional semi-annual reports, and fully exempt 81% of U.S. public companies from Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The goal is to reduce regulatory burdens on small and medium enterprises, attract stalled unicorns like SpaceX and Stripe to go public, while reducing transparency in public markets due to diminished disclosure. In this asymmetric information vacuum, the rules of the stock market will change: 1. Institutional capital will exit—no reputable institution will risk large sums betting on a financial black box disclosed only twice a year; traditional fundamental active funds on Wall Street will rapidly withdraw from small- and mid-cap stocks. 2. The liquidity vacuum left by institutional exit will be filled by high-frequency quantitative traders, speculative capital, and insider funds. It’s essentially a replay of the crypto market in 2023–2024.