Six blockchain groups including Chainlink Labs and the Cardano Foundation urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to officially classify digital commodities as non-securities and reflect that directly in its rules.

Cointelegraph reported on Oct. 21 that the groups submitted a joint letter on Oct. 20, the day the SEC’s public comment period on its proposed crypto regulations closed.

The letter was signed by Chainlink Labs, the Cardano Foundation, Hedera, Aptos Labs, Ava Labs and the Stellar Development Foundation. They said the SEC should explicitly include a digital commodity classification in the framework of its planned “crypto asset rules.” They said interpretive guidance alone would leave market participants continually exposed to legal uncertainty.

The groups said the SEC’s existing interpretations recognise digital commodities as a separate category. They said the proposed rules do not clearly show that distinction, which could confuse developers and market participants about which securities regulations apply. The joint letter said the proposed rules “fail to explicitly reflect” that distinction.

The industry request did not stop at the issuance stage. The letter also called for clearer standards on how securities laws apply to digital asset trading in secondary markets. It also asked the SEC to include in the rules standards for how staking and other activities on decentralised blockchain networks are treated.

The SEC released a draft crypto regulatory framework in August and took public comments for 60 days. About 140 comments were submitted during that period. Industry participants and legal experts offered differing views on the scope of exceptions for crypto offerings and on a conditional safe harbour applied to certain tokens.

The joint letter shows industry dissatisfaction over the level of detail in regulatory language. The participating organisations said if the SEC views digital commodities as an independent category, it should put that position directly into regulatory text rather than in guidance. They said, "Interpretive guidance alone leaves market participants facing legal uncertainty."

In this situation, how much the SEC reflects industry demands in the final rules is expected to be the next point of contention. How far it recognises a non-security classification for digital commodities, and how it sets the scope of securities law for secondary-market trading and staking, remain key variables in the proposed regulations.