The SEC just clarified crypto regulations – your taxes haven’t changed

If you’ve seen the headlines this week about the SEC redrawing crypto rules, you might be wondering what it means for your 2025 tax filing.

The short answer: nothing. The longer answer is worth understanding.

On March 17, the SEC and CFTC issued a joint interpretation establishing a formal taxonomy for crypto assets. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most proof-of-work and proof-of-stake coins are now classified as “digital commodities,” not securities. NFTs and utility tokens get similar treatment. Only tokenized financial instruments, like blockchain-based stocks or bonds, land in the securities category.

This is good news for the crypto industry. It ends years of regulatory ambiguity and puts most crypto under CFTC oversight, which has taken a more practical approach to the space than the SEC did under the previous administration.

But here’s what matters for your taxes: the SEC and the IRS are different agencies with different authority. The SEC governs what crypto is: a commodity, a security, a collectible. The IRS governs how gains are taxed. The IRS classified crypto as property in 2014, and nothing in this ruling changes that.

Capital gains rules still apply. The 2025 wallet-by-wallet accounting requirements are still in effect. Staking rewards and mining income are still ordinary income at the time you receive them.

The SEC did clarify that staking, mining, wrapping tokens, and airdrops are not securities transactions. That’s useful for the industry. But the IRS treats these the same way it did last week. Staking rewards are taxable income, wrapping a token may still be a taxable disposal event, and airdrops are income at fair market value when received.

One area to watch going forward: tokenized real-world assets. If you hold tokens representing ownership in financial instruments, the SEC’s new framework may eventually affect how those are reported. No IRS guidance exists yet on this question. We’ll update our documentation when it does.

File your 2025 return the same way you planned to. The SEC news matters for the industry’s long-term regulatory path. It doesn’t change what you owe this April.

This post is for informational purposes only and isn’t tax or legal advice. If you hold tokenized securities or have complex DeFi activity, consult a tax professional.