Introduction
In March 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued a coordinated interpretive framework (the “Framework”) governing a variety of digital assets and their treatment under the federal securities and commodities regulatory regimes. This is a long-awaited and very significant step in the development of regulated markets for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. The SEC stated that adoption of the Framework complements efforts by the U.S. Congress to codify a comprehensive market structure by legislation, while the CFTC said that its staff will administer the Commodity Exchange Act in a manner consistent with the SEC’s interpretation of the Securities Act to covered digital assets.
The issuance of the Framework follows several recent efforts within the agencies (including the establishment of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force and the launch of “Project Crypto”) to harmonize U.S. federal regulation of digital asset markets. The Framework supersedes prior statements of the SEC staff on its topics.
Taxonomy
Arguably, the Framework’s greatest contribution is the establishment of a taxonomy of traded digital assets, drawing a functional and regulatory distinction among “digital commodities,” “digital collectibles,” “digital tools,” “stablecoins” and “digital securities.” The first four enumerated categories of digital assets are stated as not being securities, largely on the basis of the stated rationale that the value of each such asset is independent of the “essential managerial efforts” of others.
- Digital Commodities: digital assets existing on a “functional” system and deriving their value from ordinary market forces. A wide swath of common crypto assets (aptos, bitcoin, bitcoin cash, dogecoin, ether and xrp, among others) are expressly classified as digital commodities, falling within the regulatory ambit of the CFTC oversight. This means that the often fraught determination of whether, and under what circumstances, such assets qualify as securities for U.S. regulatory purposes is avoided.
- Digital Collectibles: digital assets designed to be collected and representing artwork, music, videos, trading cards, in-game items, or cultural references. Digital collectibles are not securities. These assets derive their value from artistic, entertainment, social, or cultural significance and supply-and-demand dynamics, not from any essential managerial efforts of their creators. This - 2 - category includes NFTs and meme coins, and the Framework expressly lists among them CryptoPunks, Chromie Squiggles, Fan Tokens and VCOIN as examples.
- Digital Tools: digital assets with primarily practical functions, such as memberships, tickets, credentials, title instruments, or identity badges. Examples cited in the Framework are Ethereum Name Service domain names and CoinDesk’s Microcosms NFT Consensus Ticket.
- Stablecoins: building upon earlier SEC staff statements to the same general effect with respect to so-called “Covered Stablecoins,” the SEC stated that “payment stablecoins” issued by "permitted payment stablecoin issuers" under the GENIUS Act will not be treated as securities after the effective date of that legislation.
- Digital Securities: also referred to as “tokenized” securities, these are financial instruments that otherwise qualify as securities under traditional U.S. jurisprudence that are formatted as or represented by a digital asset. The digital format does not alter the existence or importance of “essential managerial efforts” of others, the hallmark of treatment of an asset as a security for U.S. federal regulatory purposes.
Other Provisions
The Framework also provides guidance on other topics relevant to transactions in digital assets:
- how a “non-security crypto asset”—which is a digital asset that is not itself a security—may become subject to, and how it may cease to be subject to, an investment contract (which can be a security under traditional analysis).
- the application (generally, the non-application) of the U.S. securities laws to airdrops, protocol mining, protocol staking, and the wrapping of a non-security crypto asset.
Conclusion
Market participants—from innovators and issuers to individual investors—should review this interpretation to better understand the regulatory jurisdiction between the SEC and CFTC under the Framework.
