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10 articles
As of July 18, 2026, the SEC's token safe harbor is still a speech plus an agenda item — the April NPRM target passed without publication. What founders can actually use now: the operative March 2026 taxonomy, the named 16-token digital-commodities list, and the live exemption stack.
Eligibility for the SEC's proposed token exemptions is a three-gate analysis: classification, pathway, and exit. Run the gates in order and most founders' answer changes from 'wait for the rule' to something they can act on today.
Ethereum staking went from enforcement target to regulated-product feature in three years. But everything institutions now build on is rescindable guidance — and that durability gap is what the CLARITY Act is actually for.
Whether an AI agent needs a financial license does not turn on the fact that it is AI. It turns on what the agent does with money or securities — and more than one regime can apply at once. An agent that executes securities trades answers to the SEC; one that trades futures, swaps, or leveraged retail crypto answers to the CFTC; one that moves customer money answers to FinCEN and the states. This is the decision guide that routes your agent to the right regulator — often more than one.
When an AI agent executes trades for other people, the 1934 Act asks one thing: for whose account? An agent that effects transactions for someone else's account is a broker and generally must register; one that trades its own account may be an exempt 'trader,' and one that matches other users' orders can become an exchange. Autonomy does not change which hat you wear.
When an AI agent recommends securities to clients for a fee, the Investment Advisers Act asks one thing: what is the advice, not who — or what — delivers it. An autonomous agent that gives personalized investment advice for compensation is judged by the same three-part test as a human adviser, and no line of code creates an exemption.
The SEC closed major NFT investigations into OpenSea and Yuga Labs in early 2025, marking a dramatic shift from its aggressive 2022-2024 enforcement strategy. Here's what changed, what it means for NFT creators and marketplaces, and how to structure compliant NFT projects going forward.
The March 2026 SEC/CFTC joint release established five token categories. Which one applies determines your regulator, registration obligations, and compliance path.
The CLARITY Act — H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 — passed the House and is now before the Senate. It would give the CFTC authority over digital commodities, including spot markets, and turn on a "mature blockchain" test rather than a named Bitcoin/Ether carve-out. Here is what the actual bill says, and what it does not.
The SEC dismissed its biggest crypto cases with prejudice, issued staff guidance, and adopted an interpretive token framework. For founders, the question shifted from "will the SEC sue me?" to "what does the new framework require — and how much of it actually binds?"
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