Six blockchain organizations, including the Cardano Foundation, Aptos Labs, Ava Labs, Chainlink Labs, Hedera, and Stellar Development Foundation, have submitted a joint comment letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing, dated October 20, 2026, coincides with the conclusion of the public comment period for the proposed Regulation Crypto Assets rule.
The coalition is urging the SEC to formally codify the definition of a digital commodity within the operative, binding text of the regulation. The groups argue that relying on informal guidance, preambles, or footnotes provides insufficient legal certainty for developers and market participants, as such documents can be easily reinterpreted or withdrawn by future officials.
The tokens associated with these organizations—ADA, APT, AVAX, LINK, HBAR, and XLM—were previously referenced in a footnote of SEC guidance on March 17, 2026, which linked them to futures regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The issuers seek a more robust legal framework to distinguish these assets from securities.
Ripple also submitted a separate comment letter on October 20, 2026, supporting the broader effort to refine regulatory classifications. While the coalition seeks to clarify the legal status of digital assets to avoid the enforcement actions currently affecting major industry players, the SEC is under no obligation to adopt the language proposed in these filings.
