Galaxy Research Director: SEC's New Plan Defines the Boundaries for Digital Assets, Marking a Major Shift in Regulatory Attitude

PANews reported on March 21 that Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, pointed out in an article published on the X platform that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued landmark regulatory guidance on digital assets this week. This move marks a shift in the SEC's regulatory stance on digital assets from the hostile attitude and vague rules of the Gary Gensler era to a more structured, transparent approach that supports industry compliance.

Alex Thorn detailed four key changes in this regulatory guidance: First, non-security digital assets can be freely traded on the secondary market after the issuer completes its core management commitments and will no longer be continuously classified as securities; second, the criterion of "full decentralization" has been removed, and the issuer's publicly made commitments are now the core basis; third, a clear safe harbor clause has been added, clarifying that common behaviors such as airdrops, mining, and staking generally do not constitute securities transactions; and fourth, the scope of the "efforts of others" analysis has been significantly narrowed, focusing only on the issuer's core management commitments and no longer taking into account third-party market speculation or community comments.

In addition, Alex Thorn echoed the industry's call to continue pushing for the CLARITY Act to be passed, which is expected to provide more lasting legal protection for crypto assets and help Bitcoin and the entire crypto asset industry achieve long-term healthy development in the US capital market.