Six logos, one request. Stellar Development Foundation, Hedera, Aptos Labs, Ava Labs, Cardano Foundation and Chainlink Labs signed a joint letter. They filed it on October 20 with the SEC. The same day, the American stock market watchdog closed its public consultation on Regulation Crypto Assets. This text governs fundraising in tokens. However, the six networks do not contest anything about the project. They just want to add a line, and not just any line.
On March 17, 2026, the SEC published an interpretation that classifies cryptoassets into five categories. First digital commodities, then digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins and finally digital securities. Only this last category falls under financial securities law. Paul Atkins, president of the SEC, summed up the day's press release this way. “Most cryptoassets are not themselves securities.” The CFTC has also joined the text. However, the native tokens of the six networks are used to pay fees, secure the chain through staking and vote. They therefore enter, according to them, in the first box.
But this classification only exists in the interpretation and in the preamble to Regulation Crypto Assets. She is absent from his articles. However, an interpretation does not have the force of law. The next commission can therefore withdraw it with the stroke of a pen, without consultation. On the other hand, a definition included in a final rule is much more robust. To modify it, a complete new notice-and-comment procedure is required. In other words, publication in the Federal Register and a contestation period.
Hence the request of the six: to include the definition of “digital commodity” in the operational text of the rule. Then specify in black and white that such an asset is not itself a security. The letter is addressed to Commission Secretary Vanessa Countryman. It particularly emphasizes the mobility of development teams. They choose their country of establishment “partly on the basis of the clarity and sustainability of the rules”. Taylor Barr, head of public affairs at Chainlink Labs, summarizes the argument about X in one sentence. “Builders need lasting certainty.”
The context explains the nervousness. The CLARITY Act was to entrust digital commodities to the CFTC by law. But he failed on September 15 in a procedural vote in the Senate, 49 votes to 50. As early as July, Paul Atkins had warned. It would use the SEC's existing powers if Congress doesn't move. Regulation Crypto Assets is therefore this plan B. It was proposed on August 18, then published on August 21 in the Federal Register for sixty days of comment.
The text first provides for two registration exemptions to raise funds in tokens. The first goes up to $5 million over four years for young projects. The second goes up to 75 million per twelve-month period for others. It then adds a conditional safe harbor, a legal refuge. This dissociates a token from the investment contract which was used to sell it. It applies once the team's commitments are met or abandoned. Finally, it preempts U.S. state laws for affected offerings.
However, the SEC which will receive these 140 and some letters only has two commissioners out of five. Hester Peirce actually left on October 2. A collective of former senior civil servants, nicknamed the “Shadow SEC”, also considers the proposal flawed. He demands that it be rewritten. The six blockchains take the exact opposite view. On the contrary, they are calling for a more solid rule. Thus, the status of their token will not depend on the mood of the next president of the SEC.
The signatories were not alone in line on October 20. Ripple also filed its own letter. Its legal director Stuart Alderoty writes that “the SEC has clear authority to adopt” the proposal. However, he refuses any decentralization test deemed subjective. The Blockchain Association wants to increase the exemption for young projects from 5 to 10 million dollars. Finally, Ava Labs and Hedera had already written separately to the Commission, on September 15, October 7 and 12. They then signed the joint text.
