US SEC: “NFTs are not securities” … classified as digital collectibles

YM Lee

Summary

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has reaffirmed its position that NFTs generally fall under “digital collectibles,” not securities.
The SEC said it has classified digital assets into four groups—digital commodities, digital tools, digital collectibles, and stablecoins—and that NFTs were included as digital collectibles.
The SEC said it is moving away from enforcement-first regulation by refining guidelines to enhance regulatory predictability, supporting tokenization technology, and building a cooperative framework with the CFTC.

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*SEC Chair Paul Atkins speaks in an interview with CNBC in the US on the 29th (local time). Photo=CNBC*

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reaffirmed its view that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) generally do not qualify as securities.

According to Cointelegraph on the 18th (local time), SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in a CNBC interview that in most cases NFTs fall under “digital collectibles,” rather than investment contracts.

Previously, the SEC, through recent interpretive guidance, categorized digital assets not subject to securities laws into four groups: digital commodities, digital tools, digital collectibles, and stablecoins. NFTs were included in the digital collectibles category.

Chair Atkins said, “Assets such as baseball cards, memes, and NFTs are things people buy and hold,” adding that they “are different from typical investment contracts.”

He also stressed that not all NFTs can be uniformly deemed non-securities. “Each asset is evaluated based on its structure and terms,” he said, explaining that “whether something is an investment contract can vary depending on the individual case.”

These remarks align with the SEC’s broader shift away from an “enforcement-first” approach toward providing clearer standards.

“We are breaking with past practices,” Chair Atkins said, signaling an intent to refine guidelines to improve regulatory predictability.

He also again emphasized tokenization as a core innovation, arguing that regulators should support it rather than suppress it.

The SEC has recently been working to overhaul its overall regulatory framework, including refining its digital-asset classification system and building a cooperative structure with the CFTC.