The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance said it views Canton Coin (CC) as a digital commodity and would not recommend enforcement action over its programmatic issuance under specified conditions, according to The Block’s report published November 4, 2026, at 06:10:48 UTC+8.
The no-action letter, published Tuesday, reflects the division’s staff enforcement position—not a legal conclusion about whether CC is a security.
What the letter covers
The division said Canton Coin derives its value from the Canton Network’s programmatic operation and supply-and-demand dynamics, rather than expectations of profit from others’ managerial efforts. It also pointed to the absence of a central party in the network.
Deputy Chief Counsel Jonathan Ingram wrote that the division would not recommend enforcement action if Super Validators, Validators and application providers minted CC programmatically as described in the submitted letter, without registration under Section 5 of the Securities Act or Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act.
That position depends on the specific facts and representations submitted by Canton and reliance on counsel’s opinion. It does not establish a blanket exemption for other tokens or resolve CC’s legal status.
Canton’s institutional context
Developed by Digital Asset, Canton Network is a blockchain infrastructure protocol intended to support secure, privacy-enabled and interoperable transactions across institutions and networks.
The report noted two earlier developments:
- May: 21Shares became the first U.S. ETF issuer to offer direct exposure to CC, the network’s native utility token.
- June: Digital Asset raised $355 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto fund to expand the Canton ecosystem and accelerate institutional adoption of its infrastructure.
A16z partner Miles Jennings welcomed the staff’s position in a Tuesday post on X. He argued that the SEC’s March token taxonomy and subsequent FAQs had created a pathway out of securities laws for network tokens, which he described as digital commodities. That broader interpretation was Jennings’ assessment; the letter itself was limited to the facts and circumstances presented.
Original source: The Block, published November 4, 2026, at 06:10:48 UTC+8.