SEC staff have said they view Canton Coin as a digital commodity, in a no-action letter published on 3 November, The Block reports. The Division of Corporation Finance will not recommend enforcement over the token’s programmatic issuance, provided the conditions in the letter hold.
Those conditions cover minting by Super Validators, Validators and application providers in the manner described, without registration under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act. The relief rests on an opinion from Canton’s counsel and on facts the project submitted.
The division’s reasoning is that the coin’s value comes from the network’s programmatic operation and from supply and demand, not from the managerial efforts of others.
It also pointed to the lack of a central party.
The letter is a staff position, not a Commission rule, and it states no legal conclusion on whether the token is a security. Jonathan Ingram, deputy chief counsel, signed it.
Canton Network was developed by Digital Asset, which raised $355 million in June in a round led by a16z crypto. In May, 21Shares became the first US ETF issuer to offer direct exposure to the coin. The a16z partner Miles Jennings welcomed the letter on X, saying the SEC’s March token taxonomy and follow-up guidance had opened a route out of securities law for network tokens.
That is his reading, not the agency’s.
What the letter does not settle is reach. The report does not say whether other tokens can rely on it, or whether the SEC will turn staff letters into a general rule.
