The SEC up to date its Buying and selling and Markets employees FAQs on Dec. 17, 2025, detailing how broker-dealers can meet custody and capital necessities for crypto-asset securities, together with exercise tied to bitcoin and ether ETPs.
What the FAQ replace adjustments
The SEC employees reiterated that Rule 15c3-3(b) “possession or management” doesn’t apply to non-security bitcoin held by broker-dealers.
For crypto-asset securities, the employees mentioned a broker-dealer can set up “management” underneath Rule 15c3-3(c) utilizing qualifying management places, even when an instrument just isn’t certificated.
The employees additionally mentioned this strategy reduces reliance on the special-purpose broker-dealer (SPBD) protected harbor as the principle path to show management.
Capital therapy for in-kind ETP exercise
The SEC employees mentioned it might not object if broker-dealers facilitating in-kind creations and redemptions deal with proprietary positions in bitcoin or ether as “readily marketable” for web capital functions.
That will apply the 20% commodity haircut underneath Rule 15c3-1 Appendix B.
Cryptoslate claims {that a} $50 million intraday stock would indicate a couple of $10 million web capital deduction underneath that haircut.
Prior steerage withdrawn
The SEC marked the 2019 SEC/FINRA joint employees assertion on broker-dealer custody of digital asset securities as withdrawn, narrowing the framework to the up to date FAQs.
The FAQ doesn’t explicitly require broker-dealers to carry personal keys, however “management” is tied to safeguarding and directing the motion of buyer securities at a acknowledged management location.
The article famous the Federal Reserve withdrew earlier supervisory letters on April 24, 2025, altering advance-notice expectations for sure crypto-asset and greenback token actions.
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