SEC
Updated
What it is
The Securities and Exchange Commission is the U.S. regulator for securities markets, created in 1934 to protect investors and keep markets fair. Whether a crypto token counts as a "security" under its rules decides how it can be sold and traded in the United States.
Why it matters lately
Under Chair Paul Atkins, the SEC ended its Ripple case on August 7, 2025 and in December 2025 cleared DTC to tokenize securities. On March 17, 2026 it issued a framework, endorsed by the CFTC, that names BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP as examples of "digital commodities" rather than securities. After the CLARITY Act failed in the Senate on September 15, 2026, the industry's focus shifted to rules from the SEC and other regulators.
Asymmetric Analytics view
Inference (AA): It decides which crypto activities fall under securities law, a key gate on institutional participation in the assets the graph covers.