The SEC has walked back its labeling of crypto tokens like Solana and Cardano as securities, admitting to confusion caused by its terminology. This shift comes as the agency battles Binance over unregistered securities, reshaping the regulatory landscape for crypto assets.

SEC Walks Back Crypto Classification

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has withdrawn its longstanding classification of cryptocurrencies as "securities" and plans to use more cautious wording going forward, according to a footnote in a court filing dated September 12, 2017.

According to Cointelegraph, the retraction was prompted by the SEC's continuing lawsuit against Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, for allegedly selling and distributing unregistered securities.

Solana, Cardano, and Polygon Among Tokens Listed as Securities

The native tokens of Solana, Cardano (ADA), and Polygon were among ten crypto assets listed by the SEC as "securities" in a 2023 complaint filed with Binance.

In its filing dated September 12, the SEC stated that it "regrets any confusion" that may have been generated by its previous classification of these tokens as "crypto asset securities" and that it "no longer uses the shorthand term."

"With its use of the term ‘crypto asset securities,’ the SEC is not referring to the crypto asset itself as the security," the agency clarified. Instead, it stated that a token's classification as a security "consists of the full set of contracts, expectations, and understandings centered on the sales and distribution of the [crypto asset]," citing language from an earlier filing.

Binance Still Liable for Securities Offers

Because Binance's tokens "continue to be offered and sold as investment contracts," the SEC maintains that the exchange is still liable for unlawful securities offers, even under this more limited interpretation.

In a similar vein, the securities regulator is presenting its case against Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange that was previously indicted in November for "operating [a] crypto trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency."

After approving Bitcoin and Ether ETFs in 2024 utilizing a legal entity structure more commonly seen with commodity funds rather than securities funds, the regulator is now focusing on the context of virtual asset sales.

In an X platform post from September 13, Coinbase's chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, stated: