SEC Staff Grants No-Action Relief for Canton Coin Minting, Viewing It as a Digital Commodity
Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a no-action letter on November 3 concerning Canton Coin, the native token of the Canton Network. The Division said it will not recommend enforcement action to the Commission if Canton Coin is minted programmatically by Super Validators, Validators and application providers, in the manner and under the circumstances described in the request letter, without registration under Section 5 of the Securities Act or Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act.
The letter, dated November 3, answers an October 30 request submitted on behalf of Digital Asset Holdings, creator of the Canton protocol. Relying on the agency's crypto-asset framework, the staff viewed Canton Coin as a digital commodity: its value derives from the programmatic operation of the Canton Network and supply-and-demand dynamics, rather than expectations of profit from the essential managerial efforts of others, and the network has no central party under the framework's definition. The response was signed by Jonathan Ingram, Deputy Chief Counsel in the Division's Office of Chief Counsel.
The staff noted that the letter expresses an enforcement position, not a legal conclusion, including on whether Canton Coin is a security; the relief depends on the representations in the request and on reliance on counsel's opinion, has no stated expiration date, and different facts or conditions could lead to a different conclusion. The Canton Network is a privacy-focused blockchain for financial applications, developed by Digital Asset to enable secure, privacy-enabled and interoperable transactions across institutions and networks.
(Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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