Crypto News
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issueda staff statement clarifying that certain software interfaces used to transact with self-hosted crypto wallets may not need to register as broker-dealers. The Division of Trading and Markets published the statement on Monday as part of a wider effort to provide interim guidance on digital assets. The statement does not carry the force of a formal rule.
The agency defined a covered user interface as a website, software application, or browser extension that allows users to initiate crypto asset securities transactions on blockchain protocols or smart contracts through their own self-custodial wallets. Interfaces embedded in wallets fall under the same definition.
The SEC listed the conditions under which it will not object to such an interface operating without broker-dealer registration. The provider must not solicit users to engage in specific transactions. It must not describe any execution route using language such as “best price.” It must also maintain policies and procedures to evaluate trading venues.
Interfaces that provide investment recommendations, offer financing, handle user assets, or execute transactions on a user’s behalf fall outside this protection. Those activities bring the interface within the scope of existing broker-dealer regulations.
The agency described the statement as an interim step while it continues to develop permanent rules for crypto asset securities activities. Over the past year, the SEC has issued a series of similar staff statements. Those have included positions that meme coins and most stablecoins do not qualify as securities, as well as a statement on staking. Each reflects the agency’s current interpretive stance without the durability of formal rulemaking.
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has said broad crypto rulemaking is approaching the proposal stage. The agency is working on rules that would provide more permanent clarity for the industry. The Senate is separately advancing the CLARITY Act, which would codify crypto regulations into federal law.
The latest statement continues the agency’s recent position that software developers should be able to build crypto interfaces without automatically triggering broker-dealer obligations, as long as those interfaces do not take on functions associated with traditional securities intermediaries.
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