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Please find written input submissions to the Crypto Task Force below. The written input is posted without modification. We hope sharing the submissions will help encourage productive dialogue and continued engagement. Please note that the “Key Points” and “Topics” are AI generated. AI can make mistakes, and the Key Points and Topics are not a replacement for you reading the submissions. The Crypto Task Force has not reviewed these AI-generated summaries for accuracy or completeness. If you believe a Key Point or Topic is inaccurate, please email the Crypto Task Force at crypto@sec.gov. The written input provided to the SEC and posted on this page does not necessarily reflect the views of the Crypto Task Force or others in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Broad exemptions from federal securities laws for tokenized securities risk undermining investor protection, fragmenting markets, and creating regulatory arbitrage by allowing functionally identical activities to operate outside established oversight frameworks.
Entities performing intermediary-like functions in tokenized securities markets—whether centralized or decentralized—should be subject to the same regulatory obligations as traditional brokers, dealers, exchanges, and clearing agencies.
Any innovation exemption framework must be narrowly tailored, include investor and transaction limits, and be subject to public notice-and-comment rulemaking to ensure it supplements rather than substitutes for comprehensive regulation.
Wintermute urges the SEC to clarify that broker-dealers using on-chain settlement for tokenized securities—without holding customer assets—qualify for the Customer Protection Rule’s (Rule 15c3-3) paragraph (k)(2)(i) exemption.
The firm recommends that proprietary traders and liquidity providers on DeFi protocols should not be classified as “dealers” under the Exchange Act if they do not engage in customer-facing activities or market intermediation.
Wintermute proposes that broker-dealers be allowed to apply a 20% net capital haircut to non-security crypto assets with a “ready market,” determined by objective criteria such as trading volume and liquidity across centralized and decentralized platforms.
Computershare advocates that listed issuers should retain discretion to issue tokenized securities directly, ensuring legal ownership is recorded on the Master Securityholder File (MSF), thereby preserving investor rights and issuer control.
The SEC should mandate that third-party tokenized securities be assigned distinct ISINs and stock codes, with clear disclosures to prevent investor confusion and to distinguish them from issuer-sponsored tokenized securities (ISTs).
Computershare recommends that updates to transfer agent rules remain technology- and format-neutral, avoiding references to specific technologies like blockchain, while still enabling secure and efficient tokenized securities processing under existing regulatory frameworks.
The submission documents pervasive inconsistencies in labeling, pricing, and volume reporting across major cryptocurrency data providers, which materially impact risk measurement and portfolio construction.
The paper proposes a scalable aggregation methodology to isolate unreliable data sources and introduces a data quality index and provider grading system for improved market oversight.
The findings support the need for unified crypto identifiers and recommend extending Vendor Display Rule–style standards to crypto data vendors to enhance transparency and investor protection.
The SEC should adopt a technology-neutral approach to regulating crypto assets, extending existing staff positions, no-action relief, and interpretative guidance applicable to non-tokenized funds to tokenized funds as well.
The SEC should clarify and update regulations regarding the custody of crypto assets, including eligibility of custodians and self-custody arrangements under Section 17(f) of the Investment Company Act of 1940.
Any new regulations should be principles-based, not prescriptive, and should avoid imposing unnecessary compliance burdens, especially on smaller entities and market entrants.
Diamante proposes a quantum-resilient blockchain infrastructure that supports post-quantum cryptographic integrity and verifiable tokenization of environmental assets, aligning with SEC sustainability and digital asset frameworks.
The system enables transparent, auditable ESG disclosures through immutable transaction history, facilitating compliance with SEC reporting and disclosure requirements for digital assets.
Diamante’s framework demonstrates how tokenized sustainability markets can operate within evolving U.S. securities laws, supporting innovation while maintaining regulatory guardrails and market integrity.
The document recommends that custody of digital assets in decentralized markets should be regulated differently from traditional markets, emphasizing technology-neutral standards, robust cryptographic key management, and operational resilience, with tailored requirements for multi-signature, MPC custody, and self-custody arrangements.
The framework treats tokenization as an operational change, not a change in legal categorization, and urges regulators to adapt existing risk categories for tokenized securities, focusing on transparency, operational integrity, and dispute resolution regardless of ledger type.
Regulations should permit temporary commingling of customer assets for operational reasons (e.g., settlement, forks), but require prompt disaggregation, robust internal controls, audit trails, and prohibit rehypothecation except with explicit customer consent.
Securitize’s issuer-sponsored tokenization model ensures that tokenized public equities are issued directly by the issuer, conferring the same legal rights (voting, dividends, corporate actions) as traditional securities, with all investors KYC-verified and transfers governed by smart contracts for compliance.
Wrapped token and derivative models introduce additional counterparty risk, lack equivalent ownership rights, and often fail to meet KYC/AML and transfer restriction requirements, raising significant regulatory concerns and potential for non-compliance with U.S. securities laws.
Securitize’s model operates fully within existing securities regulations and does not seek exemptions, contrasting with other models that may rely on regulatory arbitrage or require exemptive relief, and advocates for modernization of certain rules to accommodate blockchain solutions.
Bank Policy Institute, Association of Global Custodians, and Financial Services Forum
The SEC should not expand the definition of “qualified custodian” to include entities like state-chartered trust companies unless they are subject to regulatory oversight and prudential standards equivalent to those applied to banks.
Investment advisers should not be permitted to self-custody client crypto assets without full compliance with the Investment Advisers Act and related custody rules, as this would expose investors to heightened risks and conflicts of interest.
Any changes to the custody framework for crypto assets must maintain the core principles of asset segregation, separation of functions, and proper control to ensure investor protection and market stability.
Lisa Crossley, National Society of Compliance Professionals
NSCP urges the SEC to provide clear, objective criteria for determining whether a digital asset is a security or commodity, warning that current reliance on subjective “facts and circumstances” tests places undue interpretive burdens on compliance officers.
NSCP requests detailed guidance on how SEC-registered investment advisers can comply with Custody Rule 206(4)-2 when using digital asset custodians, particularly regarding the use of omnibus accounts, self-custody, and multi-party computation (MPC) key management.
NSCP emphasizes the need for coordinated rulemaking between the SEC, CFTC, and other regulators to avoid duplicative or conflicting compliance obligations, especially as Congress considers legislation that may assign overlapping jurisdiction.
