US SEC Chairman Announces Token Taxonomy Plan

according to Theblock, Paul Atkins, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced a plan to create a "token classification method" at the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank FinTech Conference, aimed at clarifying which cryptocurrencies are considered securities.

Preliminary classifications include: network tokens, NFTs, and digital utility tokens are not securities, while tokenized stocks and bonds are considered securities. Atkins stated that this classification method will be based on the Howey test (a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case used to determine if an asset is an investment contract). He pointed out that cryptocurrencies may be part of an investment contract, but this status is not permanent. As networks mature, code is released, control is decentralized, and the role of the issuer weakens, the nature of tokens will change.