U.S. regulators have clarified the legal status of most crypto assets after a decade of regulatory uncertainty in a joint statement.

Regulators’ clarification

The SEC and the CFTC specified that Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP, along with many other tokens, are not securities under current tests.

The agencies issued guidance outlining categories of crypto instruments that fall outside securities laws, including NFTs, memecoins and utility tokens and some stablecoins.

Scope and exceptions

A notable exception remains tokenized traditional securities, which continue to be regulated under existing securities statutes and trading venues must comply.

The guidance clarified that a token may qualify as a security if sold with promises of profit from the issuer’s efforts.

By contrast, activities such as mining, staking and airdrops were explicitly excluded from the securities assessment in this guidance as stated.

Implications for the market

Market participants welcomed the clarification as reducing legal uncertainty that persisted for roughly 10 years across exchanges, token issuers and service providers.

The regulators’ position should influence how platforms list tokens and how issuers structure offerings to avoid falling under securities rules.

Legal challenges may still arise, and industry participants will monitor enforcement and rulemaking developments at the federal and state levels.