TLDR
The SEC has issued joint guidance with the CFTC saying that most crypto assets are not securities and setting a new classification system for tokens.
- The guidance divides digital assets into categories and places most major coins in digital commodities, outside SEC securities jurisdiction.
- Staking, mining, many airdrops, most NFTs and utility tokens are generally treated as non?securities, shifting primary oversight for many assets toward the CFTC.
- Tokenized stocks and bonds stay securities, stablecoins and specific fundraising deals can still trigger securities laws, and real certainty still depends on future rulemaking and legislation.
Deep Dive
1. What The SEC Just Changed
The SEC and CFTC issued a joint interpretation stating that most crypto assets are not securities and introduced a token taxonomy into five buckets: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities. Only digital securities fall squarely under SEC securities rules, while digital commodities and tools move primarily into CFTC territory.
Examples like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP, Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and others are explicitly cited as digital commodities, not securities, in the new guidance and related coverage, reversing the prior posture that most tokens might be securities by default.[^1] SEC Chair Paul Atkins framed this as breaking with the past and moving away from regulation by enforcement toward clear categories.[^2]
For a large share of the market, the baseline assumption now starts as commodity?like asset rather than unregistered security, although context still matters.
2. Impact On Coins, NFTs And DeFi
Under the new framework, protocol mining rewards, staking rewards and many airdrops of non?security tokens are explicitly described as not securities, so participating in network consensus or receiving governance tokens is less likely to be treated as a securities offering by itself.[^2]
Most fungible protocol tokens that power decentralized networks are expected to fall into digital commodities or digital tools, while many NFTs are treated as digital collectibles similar to art or baseball cards, not investment contracts, unless they are structured and marketed as profit?sharing schemes.[^3] This should reduce legal overhang for exchanges listing major L1/L2 assets, for DeFi protocols rewarding users with utility or governance tokens, and for NFT marketplaces focused on collectibles rather than fractionalized investment products.[^4]
Day?to?day use of major coins, staking, and standard NFTs now faces less direct SEC securities risk, though projects that sell tokens as investments still need to consider how their specific deals are structured.
3. What Remains Uncertain
Tokenized versions of traditional financial assets, such as tokenized stock or bond funds, remain digital securities and squarely within SEC jurisdiction, so platforms dealing in those still need full securities compliance.[^2] The guidance also notes that a non?security token can be part of a securities investment contract if it is sold with profit promises and managerial efforts at the center, so Howey?style analysis still applies to many fundraising rounds.[^1]
Stablecoins are treated as non?securities when issued under specific federal frameworks like the proposed GENIUS Act, but some variants remain in gray areas, especially where yield or backing structures resemble money?market funds.[^2] Finally, this is agency guidance rather than statute: it can be challenged in court or adjusted by future administrations, and commentators highlight that markets shrugged partly because Congress has not yet codified a permanent market structure law.[^5]
Regulatory risk has fallen but not disappeared; the biggest remaining swing factors are how projects structure sales, how stablecoin rules land, and whether Congress turns this guidance into durable law.
Conclusion
The new SEC and CFTC interpretation pulls many mainstream crypto assets out of the unregistered security crosshairs and into a clearer commodity?style regime. That eases pressure on exchanges, DeFi, staking and NFTs, but fundraising structures, tokenized securities and some stablecoins still sit under securities rules or in gray zones. For crypto users and builders, the focus now shifts to how this framework is implemented in enforcement, upcoming safe?harbor rules, and eventual legislation that could lock these categories in for the long term.
[^1]: See the joint?interpretation coverage in this summary. [^2]: Overview of the five?bucket taxonomy and examples in this report. [^3]: Further explanation of why NFTs are treated as collectibles in this interview recap. [^4]: List of sixteen major coins classified as digital commodities in this article. [^5]: Discussion of why guidance is helpful but not yet equivalent to legislation in this analysis.
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