Six major blockchain organizations, including Chainlink Labs and the Cardano Foundation, have called on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to formally classify digital commodities as non-securities. The SEC’s comment period on its proposed cryptocurrency regulatory rules expired on Tuesday.
In a joint letter dated October 20, Chainlink Labs, Cardano Foundation, Hedera, Aptos Labs, Ava Labs, and the Stellar Development Foundation urged the SEC to directly incorporate its classification of digital commodities into the proposed Regulation Crypto Assets framework. These organizations stated that market participants would still face legal uncertainty if only interpretive guidance were used.
These institutions stated that the SEC’s current interpretations have recognized digital commodities as a distinct category, but the proposed rule does not clearly reflect this distinction, potentially leaving developers and other market participants uncertain about which securities regulations apply.
This letter also requests further clarification on how securities laws apply to secondary market transactions involving digital assets, and how staking and other activities related to decentralized blockchain networks should be treated.
In August, the SEC proposed this cryptocurrency framework and received approximately 140 public comments within 60 days. Industry participants and legal scholars offered differing views on the proposed cryptocurrency issuance exemption and the conditional safe harbor arrangement for certain tokens.