Key Highlights
- The SEC and CFTC jointly issued a new interpretation on how federal securities laws apply to crypto assets.
- The framework classifies crypto assets into digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities.
- The SEC said some protocol mining, protocol staking, certain airdrops, and some wrapped non-security tokens do not involve securities transactions.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued one of its clearest crypto policy statements yet, saying most crypto assets are not themselves securities and laying out how federal securities laws apply across major parts of the market. The March 17 interpretation was issued by the SEC with the CFTC joining to say it will administer the Commodity Exchange Act consistently with the new framework.
The Commission’s interpretations are as follows:
- Provides a coherent token taxonomy for digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities.
- Addresses how a “non-security crypto asset”—which is a crypto asset that itself is not a security—may become subject to, and how it may cease to be subject to, an investment contract.
- Clarifies the application of federal securities laws to airdrops, protocol mining, protocol staking, and the wrapping of a non-security crypto asset.
In practical terms, the release gives the market something it has wanted for years: a formal token taxonomy. The SEC now groups crypto assets into five buckets — digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities — and explains which fall outside securities law and which remain inside it.
“After more than a decade of uncertainty, this interpretation will provide market participants with a clear understanding of how the Commission treats crypto assets under federal securities laws. This is what regulatory agencies are supposed to do: draw clear lines in clear terms,” said SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins.
Chairman Atkins also said the interpretation recognizes that “most crypto assets are not themselves securities” and that an investment contract tied to a token can eventually end.
CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig described the move as a harmonized approach meant to provide “clear and rational rules of the road.”
He also said, “For far too long, American builders, innovators, and entrepreneurs have awaited clear guidance on the status of crypto assets under the federal securities and commodity laws.”
SEC draws a new line between tokens and securities
The fact sheet says digital commodities are not securities when they derive value from the functioning of a crypto system and market supply-demand rather than the essential managerial efforts of others. Digital collectibles are also treated as non-securities, covering assets tied to art, music, memes, trading cards, and in-game items. Digital tools such as memberships, tickets, credentials, title instruments, and identity badges are likewise categorized as non-securities.
On stablecoins, the SEC says GENIUS Act payment stablecoins issued by permitted issuers are not securities, while other stablecoins may still be securities depending on the facts and circumstances. Digital securities, meanwhile, remain securities when they are traditional financial instruments represented on a crypto network.
That structure matters because it shifts the debate away from whether every token is a security and toward what exactly is being offered, by whom, and with what promises attached.
Investment contracts can begin—and end
One of the most consequential parts of the interpretation is the SEC’s view that a non-security crypto asset can become subject to an investment contract when it is sold with promises of essential managerial efforts that lead buyers to expect profits. But the agency also says that status does not last forever.
According to the release, a token can separate from an investment contract once buyers can no longer reasonably expect profits from the issuer’s promised managerial efforts. The SEC says this may happen once those promises are fulfilled, or even when the issuer can no longer carry them out. Still, the agency makes clear that any original offering that should have been registered does not become lawful retroactively just because the token later separates from that contract.
That is a major doctrinal shift from the earlier market view that once a token sale was wrapped in an investment contract analysis, the asset could remain stuck in securities limbo indefinitely.
Staking, mining, wrapping, and airdrops get clearer treatment
The SEC also used the interpretation to answer several of crypto’s most contested operational questions.
The agency says certain protocol mining and protocol staking activities do not involve the offer and sale of securities. In its staking discussion, the SEC says a node operator is carrying out administrative or ministerial activity to secure a proof-of-stake network, and rewards in that context are payment for services rather than profits derived from others’ managerial efforts.
For wrapped tokens, the SEC says a redeemable wrapped token that simply serves as a receipt for a non-security crypto asset that is not subject to an investment contract does not itself amount to a security. But a wrapped version of a digital security, or of a token still tied to an investment contract, remains a security.
On airdrops, the SEC says certain distributions of non-security crypto assets do not satisfy Howey’s “investment of money” prong when recipients provide no money, goods, services, or other consideration in exchange. That means those airdrops, in the circumstances described by the release, would not need Securities Act registration.
Why this matters now
The interpretation lands as the SEC and CFTC move toward closer coordination on crypto oversight. Just days earlier, the two agencies announced a memorandum of understanding aimed at harmonizing areas of overlapping jurisdiction.
It also arrives while Congress is still trying to advance a broader market structure bill. The SEC’s own press release says the interpretation is meant to complement legislative efforts, and that timing is notable because talks over crypto market structure legislation have recently faced setbacks in Washington.
For the industry, the biggest takeaway is not that every crypto dispute is now settled. It is that the SEC has finally put in writing a framework that treats token categories differently, recognizes that many assets are outside securities law, and narrows the situations where core crypto activities trigger registration requirements. That makes this one of the most important U.S. crypto policy documents of 2026 so far.
Also Read: CFTC Calls for Stronger Oversight as Prediction Markets Expand
