SEC
The SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) is the federal agency that regulates US securities markets, enforces disclosure and registration rules, and oversees the exemptions most tokenized-asset offerings rely on.
The SEC - the US Securities and Exchange Commission - is the federal agency that regulates securities and the people who sell and trade them in the United States. It was created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 after the 1929 crash, and it is the single most important regulator for anyone tokenizing an investment for US investors.
The SEC administers two foundational laws: the Securities Act of 1933, which governs the offer and sale of securities (registration or an exemption), and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which governs trading, markets, and intermediaries. The baseline rule is that a securities offering must be registered unless a specific exemption applies.
For RWA founders, the SEC sits behind almost every rule that matters. It decides, through the Howey test, whether a token is a security. It defines the private-offering exemptions under Regulation D. It registers and oversees the intermediaries a compliant token deal uses - the broker-dealer that places or trades the security and the transfer agent that keeps the ownership record.
The SEC also runs EDGAR, the public filing system where offerings and notices (such as a Form D) are filed, and it brings enforcement actions - a major source of the crypto-securities caselaw of the 2020s. Its rules and enforcement posture shift over time, so treat any specific position as current only as of its date.
Source: U.S. SEC (sec.gov), as of 2026.
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Educational content, not financial or legal advice.