Strategy’s Michael Saylor has joined the call for the US to create a formal crypto taxonomy to clearly define when a security can be tokenized and what constitutes a digital security or commodity.
“My opinion is it would be beneficial to the market if they nail down the digital assets taxonomy,” Saylor said during Strategy’s second-quarter earnings call on Thursday.
“Under what circumstances can you tokenize a security? What’s a digital security? If they can clarify a digital commodity, what’s an asset without an issuer versus a digital token?”
The crypto industry has pushed the Trump administration to clear up the legal definitions for crypto after lengthy legal battles with the Securities and Exchange Commission over whether crypto assets are securities.
Without a taxonomy, a lot of confusion would remain over who can issue what and under which circumstances, Saylor added. The current SEC has formed a Crypto Task Force to resolve some of these uncertainties.
White House, SEC are taking action
Saylor’s comments come as the White House Working Group on Digital Asset Markets called on federal regulators on Wednesday to move more promptly to clarify crypto rules around custody, trading, registration and record-keeping.
In a speech on Thursday, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins said much of the tokenization innovation is occurring offshore due to regulatory challenges in the US.
However, he revealed that companies “are lined up at our doors with requests to tokenize” and that he has told SEC staff to “provide relief where appropriate” to ensure the US remains competitive as the digital asset industry evolves.
Legislation to make crypto definitions clearer is in the works
Congress is also preparing to review the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 in September — a bill which Saylor thinks would “create a very rich framework” for the crypto industry and everyday businesses looking to issue, trade, or tokenize assets onchain.
“In the ideal world, 40,000,000 businesses would be able to issue a token in four hours for $40,” Saylor said.
Robinhood is betting big on tokenization
Meanwhile, Robinhood is betting big on crypto tokenization, with a particular focus on unlocking access to private markets for everyday investors in the US, CEO Vladimir Tenev said during the firm’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday
“Private markets and related real-world assets are opportunities that don’t exist up until now,” and “we’re working with regulators to make that possible.”
Robinhood has already issued private equity tokens in Europe that resemble OpenAI and SpaceX shares.
However, Robinhood’s tokenization offerings recently sparked a legal inquiry in Lithuania, while OpenAI warned that Robinhood’s OpenAI token bears no connection to the company’s actual equity.
