On March 17, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance published a 68-page interpretive release that, for the first time, tells the digital asset industry what is and is not a security. Four of the five categories it defines — digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, and stablecoins — are not securities. The release also introduces a concept with no precedent in the federal securities laws: An investment contract that ceases to exist.

That alone would be the most significant crypto guidance the SEC has ever issued. But at SEC Speaks 2026, the Commission went further. Chairman Paul Atkins called the prior administration’s regulation-by-enforcement approach a…