U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw issued a sharply worded statement on May 31 criticizing what she sees as a deepening inconsistency in the agency’s treatment of crypto assets. Speaking amid the SEC Crypto Task Force’s ongoing push to offer regulatory clarity, Crenshaw argued that the Commission’s actions have instead created more confusion, particularly regarding whether digital tokens like ethereum ( ETH) and solana ( SOL) are securities.

Crenshaw cited a series of SEC staff statements in early 2025—addressing meme coins, proof-of-work mining, and stablecoins—that declared a wide range of digital assets are not securities. These statements were issued by the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance between February and April, and Crenshaw responded to each with public dissents emphasizing the risks of minimizing regulatory oversight. Despite these earlier assertions, she noted, the Commission did not object to new ETFs filed under the Investment Company Act of 1940 that rely on ETH and SOL being treated as securities. The commissioner stated:

In the name of this clarity, we’ve seen staff statement after staff statement, pronouncing that all sorts of crypto assets are not securities. And yet, now we see no objection to the effectiveness of new exchange-traded funds that assert certain crypto assets— ETH and SOL—actually are securities.

“Does this Commission, in fact, believe that ETH and SOL are securities?” She added. Crenshaw questioned how the SEC could allow both ETPs and ETFs to be registered under different assumptions about the same underlying assets. She opined:

How is it that these crypto assets are supposedly not securities when it comes to registration requirements, but conveniently are securities when a registrant sees an opportunity to sell a new product?

She added that rather than promoting consistent regulation, the agency appears to be encouraging a “maximally aggressive approach to entering our markets,” often at odds with its own legal standards. Concluding her remarks, Crenshaw warned: “So far, the Commission and The Crypto Task Force’s journey to clarity has only taken us further and further adrift in increasingly muddy waters of our own making.” Proponents of digital assets, such as Commissioner Hester M. Peirce, have defended the broader crypto ecosystem, asserting that “most currently existing crypto assets in the market” are not securities.

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