The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff issued a joint statement on Jan. 28, 2026, providing greater clarity on the application of the federal securities laws to the category of crypto assets commonly referred to as tokenized securities. The staff introduced the statement as guidance on the taxonomies of tokenized securities to assist market participants in complying with federal securities laws and preparing registration statements, proposals, or requests for submission to the staff or the SEC.

The statement generally categorizes tokenized securities in two groups: (1) issuer-sponsored tokenized securities (i.e., securities tokenized by or on behalf of the issuers of such securities); and (2) third-party sponsored tokenized securities (i.e., securities tokenized by third parties unaffiliated with the issuers of the securities).

The staff emphasizes that a tokenized security may be issued in a number of formats. The issuer-sponsored tokenized security may be the same class of security issued off-chain or on-chain, or, alternatively, represent a separate class of security. For example, a tokenized security may be issued by the issuer or its transfer agent as a crypto asset represented electronically via distributed ledger technology.

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