The SEC and CFTC released a new framework classifying digital assets into five categories, removing four from SEC oversight while keeping tokenized securities regulated. This opens the door to tokenized stocks and on-chain IPOs, fundamentally changing how companies go public.
The 233-year-old monopoly just got a 12 to 36 month expiration date, and the chairman of the SEC handed out the death certificate himself. We are migrating to crypto officially. SEC and the CFTC signed a memorandum of understanding. Both agencies, a joint operation, and they published a token classification that splits every digital asset on the planet into 5 categories. I'm going to explain all 5 categories right now. Bucket number 1, digital commodities. That's Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana. They are not securities. Bucket number 2, digital collectibles. NFTs are not securities. Bucket number 3, digital tools. Utility tokens are not securities. Number 4, payment stablecoins. USDC, USDT, PayPal USD, not securities. And bucket number 5, digital securities and tokenized stocks. Out of the 5 buckets, only one stands under the SEC's jurisdiction, and I think that's on purpose. I don't think people comprehend what just happened. The other 4 buckets just completely walked out of the door that the same regulator has been suing for the past 8 years. The SEC has been suing the biggest cryptocurrencies for a long time, and they are not considered securities anymore. They are not regulated by the SEC. Coming from this last Gensler era where every token in existence was treated like a share of Apple stock, this is a complete revolution. They flipped the entire planet of digital assets out of securities law in one single document. And the innovation exemption that Atkins just announced on this stage is the bridge to that 5th bucket, tokenized securities. The thing that lets Apple, Tesla, Nvidia trade on-chain for the first time legally, with the chairman of the SEC publicly waving them in. In that same speech, he also announced what we call the Make IPOs Great Again agenda. He pointed to a 40% drop in public company listings since mid-1990s, and he said the SEC is going to reverse it. How? By moving capital formation completely on-chain, by creating something he called regulation crypto infrastructure for companies to raise capital directly through digital assets without filing an S-1 the traditional way. So in one speech from one podium in one morning The chairman of the SEC said 3 things: tokenized stocks are legal on DeFi, most digital assets are not securities anymore, and the future of going public is going to be on the blockchain.
