At the 2026 DC Blockchain Summit, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig — joined by Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda — announced a 68-page joint interpretive release clarifying the application of federal securities laws to certain crypto assets and transactions. The document carries commission-level weight and directs enforcement and supervisory staff at both agencies.

This release supersedes staff-level guidance issued in 2019 that provided a token taxonomy focused heavily on application of the Howey test to crypto tokens.

Back in 2010, the SEC issued similar commission-level guidance titled “Commission Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change.” Sixteen years later, that interpretive framework continues to guide many companies’ climate-related disclosures in practice — even after the Commission proposed enhanced rules in 2022, adopted them in 2024, and the current SEC withdrew its defense of those rules in court.

This history illustrates how commission-level interpretive guidance — though not binding rulemaking — can endure in practice and lay a foundation for future policy. It raises a timely question for digital assets: Could the latest joint release deliver similar long-term stability?

Commissioner-Level Interpretation

Ryne Miller, a partner at Morrison & Foerster in New York and longtime observer of crypto regulation, captured its significance: “A Commissioner-level interpretation is a big deal. Even in a post-Loper Bright world without Chevron-style deference, its practical and persuasive power will shape industry behavior, judicial analysis, and enforcement policy for the foreseeable future — shifting us from regulation-by-enforcement to a rules-based framework.”

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Chevron deference was a Supreme Court ruling that allowed for more flexibility in how U.S. agencies interpret congressional statutes, with courts required to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of ambiguous statutes it administers. The doctrine ended with the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which restored independent judicial review of statutory meaning.

Federal Register Status

The guidance already appears on the Federal Register website. The agencies filed it for public inspection on March 20, and it’s scheduled for official publication on Monday, March 23, 2026 (Vol. 91, No. 55). This early availability follows standard procedure; the interpretive release becomes effective immediately upon publication.

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A Practical Taxonomy For Digital Assets

One of the release’s most valuable contributions is its clear taxonomy distinguishing “digital commodities”— assets whose value stems primarily from a functional network and ordinary market forces rather than the efforts of promoters or managers — from digital securities. The release does not create new categories; rather, it interprets how existing securities and commodities laws apply to widely traded digital assets.

The guidance classifies bitcoin, ether, solana, cardano, avalanche and xrp as digital commodities, along with dogecoin, litecoin, chainlink, polkadot, hedera, bitcoin cash, shiba inu, stellar, tezos and aptos. These assets now fall primarily under CFTC oversight as commodities rather than potential SEC securities, substantially reducing Howey test uncertainty for much of the market. The release also provides explicit clarity on protocol mining, staking, wrapping and airdrops.

SEC-CFTC Coordination On Project Crypto

The interpretation builds directly on Project Crypto, which Chairman Atkins launched in 2025. Before becoming the chair of the CFTC, Selig played an integral role as chief counsel of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, with direct oversight of Project Crypto. After his confirmation as CFTC chairman in December 2025, the two agencies aligned their efforts. With Selig — the architect of Project Crypto — now serving alongside Atkins, the agencies are unusually well-positioned to coordinate.

Miller added, "…the SEC and CFTC have a rich history of working together and coordinating, so I’m optimistic about the partnership moving forward. Of course, we will always look at any additional rules or updates from either the regulators or Congress, but for now, this is a big deal—the SEC voted on it.”

Chairman Atkins has described the release as “an important bridge for entrepreneurs and investors as Congress works to advance bipartisan market structure legislation.” While the agencies have explicitly positioned the guidance as a bridge to potential congressional action and future formal rules, its detailed taxonomy, commissioner-level endorsement and interagency coordination may give it greater practical influence and durability than the “bridge” label suggests.

Congress continues to deliberate on comprehensive digital asset market structure legislation. In the interim, this joint interpretive guidance provides immediate regulatory clarity for market participants.

For an industry that has long sought greater regulatory predictability, this coordinated guidance offers meaningful compliance certainty and a potential foundation for innovation. Whether this remains a temporary bridge or becomes the de facto framework for years — as the climate disclosure guidance did — will depend on Congress, the courts and future rulemaking.

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