Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins has said that new coin offerings (ICOs), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and utility tokens from virtual currency networks such as Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) are not securities. This reclassification takes these assets out of the agency’s orbit and into the more flexible regulatory regime of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Mr. Atkins made these statements on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, during the Blockchain Association’s annual summit. During his intervention, the official elaborated on the asset taxonomy that divides the sector into four categories.
The scheme only covers “security tokens”, understood as on-chain representations of traditional financial assets that are already regulated. It will continue to be under the scrutiny of the SEC.. The other three groups are excluded from this label.
“ICOs cross all four categories. Three of those areas are on the CFTC side, so let them worry about that and focus on tokenized securities (Securities),” Atkins said.
“We want to promote that,” he said during the summit. “Those ICOs do not fit into our current interpretation of the definition of value.”
In the new year, all the seeds we sow will begin to germinate. We prioritize innovation exemptions for cryptocurrency products to reduce compliance costs and encourage experimentation.
Paul Atkins, SEC Chairman;
This position is based on the “Project Crypto” strategy that Mr. Atkins presented in his July 31, 2025, speech titled “America’s Leadership in the Digital Financial Revolution.”
In that text, which forms the basis of his current comments, he argued that: Most crypto assets are not securities and proposed specific exemptions for decentralized network token ICOs.
According to a report by CriptoNoticias, this measure could revive the US ICO market. The ICO market is a funding mechanism that has grown explosively during the 2017 cryptocurrency boom, raising more than $2 trillion worldwide.
After years of paralysis due to SEC litigation under the previous administration, this new vision will allow ICOs to flourish without waiting for legislation.
Ultimately, the new regulatory environment is shaping up to be a win for ETH and SOL holders. Fitting decentralized networks into a category free from heavy bureaucracy paves the way for innovation; Reduces legal uncertainty for the ecosystem.