Loading story…
The SEC issued a conditional five-year Innovation Exemption intended to facilitate trading in tokenized National Market System (NMS) stocks through certain permissioned automated-market-maker venues. Eligible platforms remain subject to participant restrictions, sanctions-compliance controls, equivalent shareholder-rights requirements, and federal securities-law prohibitions on fraud and market manipulation; the Commission also requested public comment on the framework.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce supported the exemption while advocating privacy-preserving compliance mechanisms for digital-asset markets. She said zero-knowledge proofs and attribute-based credentials could allow firms to verify traits such as accredited-investor eligibility, citizenship, age, or sanctions status without repeatedly collecting the underlying personal data. Peirce emphasized that the remarks do not alter existing broker-dealer customer-identification rules, which generally require collection of a customer's name, date of birth, address, and identification number absent rulemaking or exemptive relief.
Track how attackers are adapting to this technology.
2 events from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce delivered a speech at SIFMA’s Digital Assets Conference in New York urging regulators to use zero-knowledge proofs and attribute-based credentials where technologically feasible. She stated that her remarks were personal views and did not alter existing broker-dealer customer-identification obligations.
The SEC announced conditional relief allowing eligible tokenized-stock venues using permissioned automated market-maker liquidity pools to seek exemption from the Exchange Act definition of an exchange. The exemption also conditionally exempts certain liquidity providers from the dealer definition, subject to participant, sanctions, volume, and other requirements.
Vulnerabilities, threat actors, malware, products, organizations, and breaches Mallory has linked to this story.
Follow how adversaries are adapting to this technology, and where it touches your stack today.
2 references tracked. Mallory keeps watching after this page renders.
Map indicators from this story to your assets and identify affected systems in minutes.
Every observed campaign, victim, and pivot linked to actors named in this story.
Malware, exploits, and IOCs connected to the activity described here.
YARA, Sigma, and Snort rules deployed to your SIEM as soon as they’re published.
Get matching new stories delivered to your team as they break — not the next morning.
Ask questions about this story and take action on the answers.
Other stories Mallory is tracking that overlap on entities, sources, or topic labels.
The **U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission**, working with the **CFTC**, issued interpretive guidance that for the first time lays out a formal taxonomy for crypto assets and states that **most crypto assets are not themselves securities**. The guidance creates four categories that fall outside federal securities laws—**digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, and payment stablecoins**—while reserving securities treatment for **digital securities**, defined as tokenized versions of traditional instruments such as stocks and bonds. The interpretation also clarifies how the **Howey test** applies when a crypto asset is part of an investment contract, marking a significant shift from the prior SEC approach under Gary Gensler, which had been criticized for relying on enforcement rather than clear rulemaking. The new framework was presented as an interim regulatory step while Congress continues work on broader market-structure legislation, including the **CLARITY Act**, and reflects the more coordinated posture between the SEC and CFTC under Chairman **Paul Atkins**. Supporters said the guidance is intended to reduce legal uncertainty for issuers, exchanges, and investors, and to return the SEC to policing actual securities transactions rather than treating broad swaths of the crypto market as securities by default. One reference is an opinion piece advocating for the same policy change and reinforcing the agency's rationale, while the other cited articles concern separate issues—including U.K. political donations, an Iran-linked exchange, allegations involving Binance, and Senate negotiations on crypto legislation—and are not part of this specific regulatory action.
Jul 12, 2026
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed modernized rules for registered transfer agents that explicitly address electronic and blockchain-based securities records. The proposal would update requirements for record retention, risk management, business continuity, safeguarding, and compliance, applying to traditional transfer agents as well as registered tokenization firms and issuers maintaining tokenized securities. The SEC identifies distributed-ledger data integrity, tokenized-security protection, and blockchain operating models as material operational risks requiring controls. The proposal follows SEC staff guidance issued in May 2025 that permitted transfer agents to use distributed-ledger technology for official master securityholder files when federal securities requirements are met; the rules are not yet effective and will be open for public comment for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
Sep 2, 2026
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged three purported crypto asset trading platforms—Morocoin Tech Corp., Berge Blockchain Technology Co. Ltd., and Cirkor Inc.—along with four investment clubs—AI Wealth Inc., Lane Wealth Inc., AI Investment Education Foundation Ltd., and Zenith Asset Tech Foundation—for orchestrating a fraudulent scheme that targeted retail investors through social media. According to the SEC, these entities misappropriated over $14 million by luring victims with advertisements and group chats that promised profits from AI-generated investment tips, ultimately convincing them to invest in fake crypto trading platforms where their funds were stolen. The operation used sophisticated tactics, including the use of automated trading bots to generate massive volumes of fake transactions, creating the illusion of legitimate trading activity. This enforcement action is part of a broader regulatory crackdown on crypto-related fraud, with the SEC imposing a record $4.98 billion in cryptocurrency penalties in 2024 alone. The case highlights the growing threat of social media-driven investment scams and the SEC's commitment to pursuing securities fraud that harms retail investors. The agency's complaint details how the fraudsters built trust in online group chats, posed as financial professionals, and systematically exploited individuals interested in cryptocurrency investments, underscoring the need for heightened vigilance among potential investors and continued regulatory oversight in the digital asset space.
Jun 29, 2026