{"id":95323,"date":"2026-03-18T10:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=95323"},"modified":"2026-03-19T10:49:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T07:49:37","slug":"sec-excludes-stablecoins-from-securities-and-announces-safe-harbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/sec-excludes-stablecoins-from-securities-and-announces-safe-harbor\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Excludes Stablecoins from Securities and Announces &#8216;Safe Harbor&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During the DC Blockchain Summit, Paul Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/newsroom\/speeches-statements\/atkins-remarks-regulation-crypto-assets-031726\">introduced<\/a> a new token taxonomy and an updated interpretation of investment contracts.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the agency aims to eliminate regulatory uncertainty. The new interpretation identifies four categories of assets that are not considered securities:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>digital commodities;<\/li>\n<li>digital collectibles;<\/li>\n<li>digital instruments;<\/li>\n<li>payment <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-are-stablecoins\">stablecoins<\/a> (in accordance with the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/donald-trump-enacts-stablecoin-legislation\">GENIUS Act<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The regulator clarified that only one class of assets falls under the relevant legislation \u2014 &#8220;digital securities.&#8221; This refers exclusively to <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-are-rwas-real-world-assets\">tokenized<\/a> versions of traditional financial instruments.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Crypto Asset Regulation Framework<\/h2>\n<p>Atkins also announced the development of a set of rules for <span data-descr=\"regulation of crypto assets\" class=\"old_tooltip\">Regulation Crypto Assets<\/span>, which will create transparent legal ways for the industry to raise capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The proposal, which the SEC will consider in the coming weeks, includes three key mechanisms:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Exemption for startups.<\/strong> A temporary measure (up to four years) for early-stage projects. Developers will be able to raise up to $5 million by providing basic disclosure (similar to a white paper).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Exemption for fundraising.<\/strong> Allows raising up to $75 million annually. Issuers will need to disclose financial condition and reporting.<\/li>\n<li><strong>&#8220;Safe harbor&#8221; for investment contracts.<\/strong> An asset will cease to be considered part of an investment contract once the issuer fulfills initial obligations and transfers control to the community (effectively achieving decentralization).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The SEC head noted that this initiative is based on ideas from Commissioner Hester Peirce, who proposed the Token Safe Harbor concept back in 2020. The rules will also align with bipartisan legislative initiatives in Congress and the provisions of the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/cryptocurrency-firms-seek-compromise-on-clarity-act-disputes\">Clarity Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Atkins emphasized that the regulator&#8217;s goal is to restore trust in the safety of innovations in the U.S. The SEC and the <span data-descr=\"U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission\" class=\"old_tooltip\">CFTC<\/span> plan to work together on implementing these standards.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Flip Side of Liberalization<\/h2>\n<p>Amidst the easing regulatory climate, Tally, a governance platform for <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-a-dao-decentralised-autonomous-organisation\">DAOs<\/a>, announced its closure. The service operated for six years and served over 500 organizations, including Uniswap, Arbitrum, and ENS.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is the end folks. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EKzYo0qDWG\">https:\/\/t.co\/EKzYo0qDWG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dennison (@DennisonBertram) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DennisonBertram\/status\/2033918166376574976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Tally CEO Dennison Bertram told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/markets\/2026\/03\/17\/gensler-and-biden-were-just-better-for-crypto-says-tally-ceo-as-dao-governance-platform-shuts-down\">CoinDesk<\/a> that the decision was due to changes in U.S. regulatory policy. According to him, the strict stance of former SEC head <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/gary-genslers-departure-a-retrospective-on-the-sec-chairs-tenure\">Gary Gensler<\/a> forced projects to shift to decentralized governance to avoid having tokens classified as securities. Tally&#8217;s tools were part of this legal protection strategy.<\/p>\n<p>With the arrival of a more lenient administration, regulatory pressure decreased, along with the demand for complex on-chain governance tools.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>&#8220;The [U.S. President Donald] Trump administration makes it clear: &#8216;you have no problems, do what you want.&#8217; This provides enormous freedom, but now it&#8217;s unclear whether decentralization is needed at all,&#8221; Bertram noted.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Other market participants confirm the trend. Earlier, Across Protocol co-founder Hart Lambur <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hal2001\/status\/2031737518505537907\">suggested<\/a> dissolving the DAO. Decentralized structures were also abandoned by the exchange <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/jupiter-team-halts-dao-operations\">Jupiter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/yuga-labs-proposes-dissolution-of-apecoin-dao\">Yuga Labs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>An additional factor in the closure was the failure of the &#8220;infinite garden&#8221; hypothesis of <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-a-layer%e2%80%912-solution-in-blockchain\">L2<\/a> networks. Tally anticipated the emergence of thousands of new blockchains, but the market consolidated around a few major players. Additionally, Bertram noted an outflow of specialists into the artificial intelligence sector.<\/p>\n<p>Back in January, the SEC <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/sec-equates-tokenized-assets-with-traditional-securities\">clarified<\/a> that tokenized securities are fully subject to federal legislation for traditional instruments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Atkins, Chairman of the SEC, introduced a new token taxonomy and updated interpretation of investment contracts during the DC Blockchain Summit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"DAO governance platform Tally shut down \"due to easing regulation in the U.S.\"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[80,36,128,807,26],"class_list":["post-95323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-dao","tag-regulation","tag-sec","tag-stablecoins","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"148","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"DAO governance platform Tally shut down \"due to easing regulation in the U.S.\"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95325,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95323\/revisions\/95325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}