Regulatory classes of cryptocurrencies: commodity, contested, security, unclassified
Every asset page on CoinSpectrum has a row called Regulatory class. It holds a word only where a US regulator has taken a public position on the asset, and the list below names every asset that has one. Everything else is unclassified, because nobody with the authority to classify it has done so.
What is a cryptocurrency's regulatory class?
The position a regulator has taken on what the asset is in law. In the United States that means a commodity, which the CFTC oversees in derivatives markets, or a security, which falls under the SEC. CoinSpectrum records four classes: commodity (named one by the SEC and CFTC in March 2026), contested (alleged a security, never decided), security (a standing court judgment in a case the SEC brought; Terra Luna Classic is the one so far) and unclassified (no position at all).
The four classes and where they come from
Commodity
On 17 March 2026 the SEC and the CFTC published a joint interpretation in the Federal Register (91 FR 13714) that names a set of crypto assets as digital commodities. The list was drawn from the assets underlying futures contracts that already trade on CFTC-regulated exchanges. An asset on it is classed a commodity on CoinSpectrum, with the interpretation and its date given as the source. Two of the assets it names, Chainlink and Shiba Inu, are tokens rather than cryptocurrencies with their own chain; they are listed with the tokens.
Contested
In 2023 the SEC sued Coinbase and Binance and, in the complaints, alleged that a number of the tokens they listed were securities sold without registration. The same year it sued Justin Sun over TRON. An allegation in a complaint is a position taken, not a question settled, and in 2025 the SEC moved to drop or pause those cases, so no court decided it. An asset the complaints named and the 2026 interpretation did not is classed contested.
Commodity and contested
Four assets carry both classes. Solana and Cardano were named securities in the 2023 complaints and commodities in 2026; XRP was the subject of the SEC's case against Ripple, filed in December 2020; and Ether, sold in a crowdsale in 2014, is the most argued-over case of all though no complaint named it. The 2026 interpretation is the latest official position, so each is shown as a commodity, and the earlier dispute is shown beside it rather than erased.
Security
The class is kept for a standing court judgment, in a case the SEC brought, that an asset is a security. One cryptocurrency on the site has one: Terra Luna Classic (LUNC). In SEC v. Terraform Labs the court held on 28 December 2023 that LUNA was a security, an investment contract, and rejected the idea that buyers on exchanges stood apart from those who bought from Terraform; final judgment was entered in June 2024. The token the ruling names is the original LUNA, renamed LUNC when Terra 2.0 launched in May 2022 with a new LUNA, which the ruling does not cover.
Other rulings were about how a coin was sold rather than the coin: in July 2023 the court in SEC v. Ripple held that Ripple's direct sales of XRP to institutions were investment contracts and that its sales on exchanges were not. A ruling about a sale is not a ruling about every later holder, so XRP is not classed a security.
Unclassified
Most assets have no class because no regulator has said anything about them. CoinSpectrum prints "unclassified" rather than inferring a class from an asset's design: a guess in the same column as a regulator's position cannot be told apart from it. Of the cryptocurrencies on the site, 24 carry a regulator's class and 484 are unclassified. Why the site prints that is argued in its own post.
Every asset a regulator has classified
On 28 October 2026 the list holds 27 assets: 12 named commodities only, 4 named commodities whose status as a security was also alleged or disputed, and 10 alleged securities that were not named, and 1 held a security by a court.
| Asset | Class | The regulator's position |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin BTC | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Dogecoin DOGE | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Chainlink LINK | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Stellar XLM | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Bitcoin Cash BCH | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Litecoin LTC | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Avalanche AVAX | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Hedera HBAR | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Shiba Inu SHIB | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Polkadot DOT | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Aptos APT | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Tezos XTZ | Commodity | Named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026 |
| Ethereum ETH | Commodity and contested | Named a digital commodity in March 2026; its status as a security had been alleged or disputed before |
| XRP XRP | Commodity and contested | Named a digital commodity in March 2026; its status as a security had been alleged or disputed before |
| Solana SOL | Commodity and contested | Named a digital commodity in March 2026; its status as a security had been alleged or disputed before |
| Cardano ADA | Commodity and contested | Named a digital commodity in March 2026; its status as a security had been alleged or disputed before |
| BNB BNB | Contested | Alleged an unregistered security by the SEC in 2023; not named a commodity in 2026, not adjudicated |
| TRON TRX | Contested | Alleged an unregistered security by the SEC in 2023; not named a commodity in 2026, not adjudicated |
| NEAR Protocol NEAR | Contested | Alleged an unregistered security by the SEC in 2023; not named a commodity in 2026, not adjudicated |
| Internet Computer ICP | Contested | Alleged an unregistered security by the SEC in 2023; not named a commodity in 2026, not adjudicated |
| POL (ex-MATIC) POL | Contested | Alleged an unregistered security by the SEC in 2023; not named a commodity in 2026, not adjudicated |
| Algorand ALGO | Contested | Alleged an unregistered security by the SEC in 2023; not named a commodity in 2026, not adjudicated |
| Cosmos Hub ATOM | Contested | Alleged an unregistered security by the SEC in 2023; not named a commodity in 2026, not adjudicated |
| Filecoin FIL | Contested | Alleged an unregistered security by the SEC in 2023; not named a commodity in 2026, not adjudicated |
| Dash DASH | Contested | Alleged an unregistered security by the SEC in 2023; not named a commodity in 2026, not adjudicated |
| Flow FLOW | Contested | Alleged an unregistered security by the SEC in 2023; not named a commodity in 2026, not adjudicated |
| Terra Luna Classic LUNC | Security | Held a security by a court in a case the SEC brought, by a standing judgment |
The list is rebuilt from the site's data with every build, so it changes when a regulator takes a new position. Each name links to its asset page, where the position and its source are shown in full.
How CoinSpectrum uses the class
The class is shown on each asset page as Regulatory class, and the ranking can be filtered by it. It is reported as the regulator's position, with who took it and when, not as the site's own view. It plays no part in the CoinSpectrum Grade, which rates how a chain is built and launched rather than how it is regulated. Only US positions are recorded so far, from the SEC and the CFTC, because they are the ones that name individual assets.
Questions
Is Bitcoin a commodity?
Yes, in the United States. It was named a digital commodity in the joint SEC-CFTC interpretation of 17 March 2026, and the CFTC had treated it as one for years before that, which is why Bitcoin futures trade on CFTC-regulated exchanges.
Is XRP a security?
Not by any standing judgment. A court held in 2023 that Ripple's direct sales of XRP to institutions were investment contracts, not that XRP itself is a security, and in March 2026 the SEC and CFTC named XRP a digital commodity. CoinSpectrum shows it as a commodity whose status was contested.
Is any cryptocurrency classed a security?
One: Terra Luna Classic (LUNC). A court held the original LUNA a security in SEC v. Terraform Labs in December 2023, and the judgment stands. LUNA was renamed LUNC in May 2022; the new LUNA of Terra 2.0 is not covered and stays unclassified.
Why can one asset have two classes?
Because two official positions exist and neither cancels the other's history. The 2026 interpretation is the current one; the earlier allegation is part of the record, and a reader comparing assets should see both.
Why only US regulators?
They are the only regulators that have named individual assets in a public, citable document. Frameworks elsewhere, such as the EU's MiCA, define categories of crypto-asset without classifying named coins.