SEC opens crypto dialogue with call for clearer rules
Earlier this month Mark T. Uyeda, Acting Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), opened the inaugural roundtable of the agency’s new Crypto Task Force in Washington, D.C.
The roundtable tackled the longstanding legal tangle around classifying crypto assets under US federal securities laws, particularly the vexed application of the Howey test.
Uyeda’s remarks highlighted the persistent uncertainties plaguing the crypto ecosystem, driven by inconsistent court interpretations and a lack of regulatory guidance. He criticised the reliance on enforcement actions over rulemaking and pointed to past SEC examples like whisky warehouse receipts and condo sales where interpretative releases brought much-needed clarity.
This call for more transparent, structured guidance is decades in the making. Since the release of the Bitcoin white paper in 2008, regulators have struggled to define the legal nature of crypto assets. The 1946 Howey test was never designed for decentralised tokens traded on borderless blockchains, and fragmented court rulings have only muddied the waters further.
The roundtable signals growing regulatory appetite for coherent classification and disclosure frameworks, supported by structured, machine-readable reporting. We believe digital reporting, grounded in standards, are essential to making sense of complex asset classes.
Read more about Acting Chairman Uyeda’s remarks and the roundtable discussion here.
