SEC Regulation Crypto Assets: When a Token Is No Longer a Security

The US securities regulator, the SEC, had its proposed rule Regulation Crypto Assets printed in the Federal Register on August 21, 2026. A hard clock has been running since that day: the agency will accept comments on it until October 20, 2026. The proposal answers the question on which American crypto regulation has been snagged for years, namely when a token stops being the subject of an investment contract. For you as a holder, nothing changes today, because the text is not yet law. What is settled since the printing is the schedule, and that is precisely the news.

What Regulation Crypto Assets is, and why October 20, 2026 counts

Regulation Crypto Assets is a bundle of new rules that the SEC wants to place in a section of US federal law of its own. The proposal has two thrusts: it creates two exemptions from the registration requirement for issuers, and it describes for the first time in written form the conditions under which a crypto token is no longer treated as part of an investment contract.

The Federal Register is the official gazette of the US federal agencies. A proposed rule has no binding force there yet, but the printing sets in motion the period within which any interested person may file objections. This procedure is called notice and comment: the agency lays open a draft, gathers comments, and must address the substantial objections in the final version.