Ripple Asks SEC for Clearer Broker-Dealer Rules for Stablecoins and Tokenized Securities

Ripple has formally pressed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for clearer rules on payment stablecoins and tokenized securities, escalating a conversation that began when the company met with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force in March. In a detailed follow-up letter to the Task Force, Ripple lays out concrete regulatory changes it says are needed to bring traditional broker-dealer rules into line with digital-asset realities: - Clarify how stablecoins can be treated as collateral on broker-dealer balance sheets by amending Rule 15c3-1 (the SEC’s net capital rule). - Define custody standards for client stablecoins under Rule 15c3-3 (the customer protection rule) by creating a new category of “Qualified Payment Stablecoins.” - Confirm that non-security crypto assets beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum can receive equivalent treatment if they meet an established “readily marketable” test—proposing that the SEC revise Question 4 in its crypto FAQ to reflect this. - Provide a formal analysis showing why the current 2% haircut on stablecoins is punitive; Ripple argues that stablecoins should have a 0% haircut where there is a mint-burn relationship between broker-dealers and issuers. - Resolve the legal ambiguity around ownership records in tokenized (“digital twin”) structures by designating the on-chain registry as the single authoritative legal register, rather than allowing parallel on-chain and off-chain ledgers to coexist without clarity. Ripple frames these requests as practical steps to harmonize long-standing securities and customer-protection rules with payment stablecoins and tokenized instruments—areas the company says the SEC has only partially addressed. The letter references recent SEC guidance that classified certain major cryptocurrencies as commodities alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum, and asks the commission to extend comparable treatment to other non-securities that meet the marketability standard. Why it matters: amending 15c3-1 and 15c3-3, and resolving registry and haircut issues, could reduce capital and custody frictions for firms working with stablecoins and tokenized assets. Ripple argues such changes would enable safer, clearer on-chain settlement and broader institutional adoption without sacrificing investor protections. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also weighed in publicly. In an X post, he celebrated what he called a defeat of the “anti-crypto army” by the courts, voters, and President Trump, calling past enforcement hostility a “crypto witch hunt” that made “no policy, legal, or political sense.” His remarks followed a post by former President Trump blaming ex-SEC Chair Gary Gensler and anti-crypto actors for nearly destroying the U.S. crypto industry and pledging to codify the CLARITY Act. Ripple’s letter is a follow-up to its March 20 meeting with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, where the parties discussed treatment of payment stablecoins and tokenized securities under net capital and consumer protection rules and explored possible next steps toward broader guidance. The industry will be watching for the SEC’s response—and whether regulators move to update legacy rules to better reflect on-chain mechanics.