16 Cryptocurrencies Officially Classified as Digital Commodities
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and 12 others are now commodities — not securities.
What Changed
On March 17, 2026, the SEC and CFTC jointly issued Release No. 33-11412, a 68-page interpretive release classifying 16 major cryptocurrencies as "digital commodities" subject to CFTC oversight rather than SEC securities regulation. The named assets include BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, LINK, AVAX, DOT, MATIC, ATOM, UNI, AAVE, LTC, BCH, XLM, and ALGO. The release also clarifies that mining, all four staking models, and no-consideration airdrops are not securities transactions. This supersedes all prior SEC staff guidance on digital asset classification.
Who It Affects
Crypto exchanges listing these assets, institutional allocators with compliance restrictions on securities-classified tokens, compliance teams that had blocked exposure to SOL, ADA, LINK, or AVAX on securities grounds, and custody providers structuring their offerings around token classification.
What to Do
Update internal compliance memos to reflect the reclassification. Assess whether tokens previously classified as securities in your risk framework should be moved to the commodity category. Note that this is an interpretation, not permanent law — the CLARITY Act must pass Congress to lock in the classification.
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