#sec称代币回购与网络升级不自动构成证券
For a year the US Congress was in uproar, votes 49-50 failed, and one SEC FAQ effectively wrote the rules for a $3 trillion market
📢 群里聊行情
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) updated a crypto assets Q&A list last Friday: as long as a blockchain network is already “operational” (i.e., the network is functioning) and the project team publicly announces that it will repurchase its own tokens, this would no longer be considered “the essential efforts of others” under the Howey test—meaning it would not be treated as a security. Conversely, if the chain hasn’t even launched yet, but the repurchase is marketed to token holders as “profits/returns,” it still may cross the line into securities law.
This FAQ itself has no legal force, but its timing is unusually sensitive: it follows the interpretive guidance from March and the “Regulation of Crypto Assets” (Regulation Crypto Assets) proposal, and it also directly comes on the heels of the September 18 innovation exemption for tokenized stocks. The timeline is very clear— the CLARITY Act failed in the Senate in September by a 49-50 vote (11 votes short of the 60-vote threshold), SEC Chair Paul Atkins had already signaled back in July, “If the bill doesn’t pass, we’ll do it ourselves,” and the CFTC also chimed in with a comment in August.
Put it into plain language: in the past, token issuers feared being judged to be promising profits by “talking about the ecosystem while repurchasing to prop up the token price.” Now, the official stance is essentially blunt—if the chain is running, publicly repurchasing is okay; you don’t need to grant token holders shareholder-level rights, and you don’t have to complete the full registration process.
Former Delphi Labs general counsel and now an attorney at MetaLeX Labs, Gabriel Shapiro, even called it a “loophole,” saying crypto is seeking “all the benefits of holding equity, while taking on none of the obligations.”
My view is somewhat cautious: in the short term it’s definitely a win for projects—the repurchase means real cash backing the token. But this is only “employee guidance.” If a different SEC chair comes in, or a private lawsuit is filed, everything could be overturned. And with Bitcoin currently at $85,009 and a market cap of $1.71 trillion, the market hasn’t really priced in this news—true leverage still sits with those 60 votes in Congress.
So is this a shortcut—or the next hidden risk? Let me know your take in the comments.
Every day I bring you the SEC and crypto regulation hot spots—not just to tell you what’s happening in the news, but to help you understand the logic and opportunities behind it 👀🚀
Click the profile picture to watch the live stream
For a year the US Congress was in uproar, votes 49-50 failed, and one SEC FAQ effectively wrote the rules for a $3 trillion market
📢 群里聊行情
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) updated a crypto assets Q&A list last Friday: as long as a blockchain network is already “operational” (i.e., the network is functioning) and the project team publicly announces that it will repurchase its own tokens, this would no longer be considered “the essential efforts of others” under the Howey test—meaning it would not be treated as a security. Conversely, if the chain hasn’t even launched yet, but the repurchase is marketed to token holders as “profits/returns,” it still may cross the line into securities law.
This FAQ itself has no legal force, but its timing is unusually sensitive: it follows the interpretive guidance from March and the “Regulation of Crypto Assets” (Regulation Crypto Assets) proposal, and it also directly comes on the heels of the September 18 innovation exemption for tokenized stocks. The timeline is very clear— the CLARITY Act failed in the Senate in September by a 49-50 vote (11 votes short of the 60-vote threshold), SEC Chair Paul Atkins had already signaled back in July, “If the bill doesn’t pass, we’ll do it ourselves,” and the CFTC also chimed in with a comment in August.
Put it into plain language: in the past, token issuers feared being judged to be promising profits by “talking about the ecosystem while repurchasing to prop up the token price.” Now, the official stance is essentially blunt—if the chain is running, publicly repurchasing is okay; you don’t need to grant token holders shareholder-level rights, and you don’t have to complete the full registration process.
Former Delphi Labs general counsel and now an attorney at MetaLeX Labs, Gabriel Shapiro, even called it a “loophole,” saying crypto is seeking “all the benefits of holding equity, while taking on none of the obligations.”
My view is somewhat cautious: in the short term it’s definitely a win for projects—the repurchase means real cash backing the token. But this is only “employee guidance.” If a different SEC chair comes in, or a private lawsuit is filed, everything could be overturned. And with Bitcoin currently at $85,009 and a market cap of $1.71 trillion, the market hasn’t really priced in this news—true leverage still sits with those 60 votes in Congress.
So is this a shortcut—or the next hidden risk? Let me know your take in the comments.
Every day I bring you the SEC and crypto regulation hot spots—not just to tell you what’s happening in the news, but to help you understand the logic and opportunities behind it 👀🚀
Click the profile picture to watch the live stream