PANews reported on December 10th, citing The Block, that SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated at the Blockchain Association's annual policy summit on Tuesday that many types of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) should be considered non-securities transactions and are outside the jurisdiction of Wall Street regulators. He explained that this is precisely what the SEC wants to encourage, as these types of transactions, by their definition, do not fall under the category of securities. Atkins specifically mentioned the token taxonomy he introduced last month, which divides the crypto industry into four categories of tokens. He pointed out last month that network tokens, digital collectibles, and digital instruments should not be considered securities in themselves. On Tuesday, he further stated that ICOs involving these three types of tokens should also be considered non-securities transactions, meaning they are not subject to SEC regulation.

Atkins also mentioned that, regarding initial coin offerings (ICOs), the SEC believes the only type of token it should regulate is tokenized securities, which are tokenized forms of securities already under SEC regulation and traded on-chain. He further explained that ICOs span four themes, three of which fall under the jurisdiction of the CFTC. The SEC will delegate these matters to the CFTC, while focusing on regulating tokenized securities.