SEC
Securities and Exchange Commission
The US federal agency regulating securities markets — its enforcement decisions shape token-classification and stablecoin-as-security questions.
The SEC has historically argued many tokens (and some stablecoin structures) are unregistered securities, with enforcement actions against Paxos (BUSD wind-down), Coinbase (lending-product), and others. Tokenised T-bill products (BUIDL, FOBXX, OUSG) operate UNDER the SEC's Reg D / Reg S frameworks rather than fighting it.
Related terms
- CFTCThe US derivatives regulator — claims jurisdiction over Bitcoin / Ether as commodities and over crypto-derivatives venues.
- Howey testThe 1946 SCOTUS framework determining whether an arrangement is an investment contract (and therefore a security under US law).
- FinCENA bureau of the US Treasury enforcing AML / BSA obligations on financial institutions including most stablecoin issuers.
- Reg DAn SEC exemption letting issuers sell securities without full registration — used by tokenised RWA products targeting US accredited investors.