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 the circumstances described in a no-action request.
The letter, published Tuesday, November 3, 2026, sets out a staff enforcement position—not a legal determination that Canton Coin is not a security.
Scope of the relief
Deputy Chief Counsel Jonathan Ingram wrote that the division would not recommend enforcement action if Canton Coin is minted programmatically by Super Validators, Validators and application providers, without registration under Section 5 of the Securities Act or Section 12(g) of the Exchange Act, in the manner and under the circumstances described in the requesting counsel’s letter and in reliance on counsel’s opinion.
The division said CC derives its value from the Canton Network’s programmatic operation and supply-and-demand dynamics, rather than expectations of profit from the managerial efforts of others. It also cited the absence of a central party in the network.
The position rests on the specific facts and representations submitted by Canton. The letter does not express a legal conclusion on the issues presented, including whether CC is a security.
Canton’s institutional-market 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. CC is its native utility token.
According to The Block’s report, 21Shares became the first U.S. ETF issuer to offer direct exposure to CC in May 2026. In June, Digital Asset raised $355 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto fund to expand the Canton ecosystem and accelerate institutional adoption of its blockchain infrastructure.
A16z partner Miles Jennings welcomed the staff position in a Tuesday post on X. He argued that the SEC’s March token taxonomy and subsequent FAQs had created a path out of securities laws for network tokens. That broader interpretation was Jennings’s assessment; the no-action letter itself is limited to the facts and circumstances presented.
Original reporting: The Block, published November 4, 2026, at 06:10:48 UTC+8.