SEC chair Paul Atkins says most crypto tokens aren’t securities under new standards
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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman, Paul Atkins, has cleared the air on what has been the industry’s sore point for years, especially under Gary Gensler. According to the pro-crypto chairman, an asset should only be considered a security in situations where a third party’s managerial efforts are absolutely essential to promises of the asset’s future value. Many, if not most, crypto tokens are purchased by holders in anticipation of future profits. However, Atkins repeatedly clarified that a token should only be considered a security if purchasers are “expecting profits from the essential managerial efforts of others” due to promises from the issuer that also “must be explicit and unambiguous.” Since taking office in April, Atkins has led the SEC to establish a dedicated Crypto Task Force and has dropped several ongoing enforcement actions inherited from the Gensler era. This is another key policy shift where Atkin is pushing back against Gensler’s interpretation that most crypto coins are securities. Ethereum and XRP get a soft landing Under these standards, the majority of crypto tokens trading today will not fall under the SEC’s jurisdiction. In the instance that a crypto token does qualify as an investment contract by meeting that bar, it could again become a non-security after “the issuer either fulfills the representations or promises, fails to satisfy them, or they otherwise terminate.” Paul Atkins stated that some types of crypto tokens should not be considered securities in and of themselves. Some of these are “network tokens” that are connected to a working, decentralized blockchain network. Most popular crypto tokens, such as Ethereum, Solana, and XRP, fall into this group. Atkins also listed “digital collectibles” as a type of exempt token. These are crypto coins that either represent media rights or, more importantly, reference “internet memes, characters, current…
Filed under: News - @ November 12, 2025 7:26 pm