Strategy’s Michael Saylor met with the SEC Crypto Task Force on Friday

Microstrategy founder and chairman Michael Saylor sat down with the SEC’s brand-new Crypto Task Force in Washington on Friday, February 21, and had a meeting focused entirely on figuring out exactly how digital assets like Bitcoin, tokens, NFTs, and stablecoins should be regulated across the United States.

The SEC’s task force started work just one month earlier, on January 21, under Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda, and Commissioner Hester Peirce leads it.

Michael’s conversation with the SEC’s task force specifically covered how crypto assets need clear and easy-to-understand categories. The meeting aimed to create straightforward rules so issuers, traders, and everyday people know exactly what they can and can’t do with digital assets. The task force wants regulations that help people innovate, rather than slow everything down.

SEC hard at work on crypto regulations

The task force shared a draft framework at the meeting, called “Taxonomy,” to put different digital assets into categories.

According to details from the discussion, this would include six basic asset types: digital commodities, digital securities, digital currencies, digital tokens, digital NFTs, and digital asset-backed tokens (ABTs). Each type has a very specific meaning.

Digital commodities like Bitcoin don’t have an issuer behind them, meaning no company directly controls them. Digital securities, by contrast, have clear issuers backing them up, like equity, debt, or derivative contracts.

Digital currencies are issued and directly backed by fiat currency like the US dollar. Digital tokens are assets with an issuer designed to offer utility online.

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are unique digital assets issued by creators, artists, or brands. Finally, digital ABTs are assets issued but backed by physical items such as gold, oil, or agricultural products.

According to Michael’s conversation with the SEC, the task force also discussed setting rights and responsibilities clearly for issuers, crypto exchanges, and asset owners.

The goal behind creating clear rules for responsibilities is to let everybody in the crypto market trade, own, or issue digital assets safely, without confusion.

For issuers, the SEC proposed clear rights to issue digital assets but stressed that companies must disclose all relevant facts and behave ethically.

Exchanges also got a very specific outline: they have the right to custody digital assets, trade them, and move them between clients or other exchanges. At the same time, exchanges must openly publish asset disclosures, keep client money safe, and always avoid conflicts of interest.

Regular owners also got straightforward rights, including self-custody of assets, the ability to trade freely, and responsibility for following local laws wherever they live.

Michael confirmed that a major theme at the meeting was that nobody has a right to cheat, lie, or steal, and everyone will face both civil and criminal consequences if they do.

The SEC task force also told Michael they want practical compliance rules that don’t add unnecessary bureaucracy or extra costs. A key idea discussed was creating standardized disclosures.

Under this plan, every single digital asset would have a simple, standardized data set clearly stating its details, risks, and purpose. To make life easier, exchanges could gather and publish this data as a free industry service. Cost controls were another important topic covered in Michael’s meeting.

The SEC’s plan would set hard limits on compliance costs. Issuers would spend no more than 1% of their assets under management (AUM) to issue a new crypto asset.

Keeping a crypto asset listed each year would cost companies less than 0.1% annually. The task force also wants to get regulators out of the direct path of asset issuance, letting exchanges handle most routine compliance tasks directly.

Michael’s discussion with the SEC also covered the idea of a faster and cheaper issuance process to bring more businesses into the crypto and digital asset industry. Instead of taking months or years, new digital assets could be issued in hours or days.

Costs for launching new digital assets, currently running anywhere from $10 million up to $100 million, would drastically drop to just $10,000 to $100,000 under the proposed system.

The SEC told Michael that cutting these costs and simplifying rules could open up American capital markets to far more businesses. Right now, only about 4,000 companies in America can access traditional public capital markets.

If new digital asset rules take effect, about 40 million businesses—from mom-and-pop shops to mid-size enterprises, small artists, celebrities, or entrepreneurs—could directly raise capital through tokenized digital assets.

Michael was also briefed that the new rules could give regular investors access to thousands of new digital assets backed by tangible commodities like real estate, art, collectibles, sports teams, intellectual property, brands, and more.

They would also have access to digital financial instruments, like tokenized equity, bonds, debt instruments, derivatives, and currencies. The SEC wants regular investors to have plenty of choices in digital assets tied directly to products and services they actually care about.

“A strategic digital asset policy can strengthen the US dollar, neutralize the national debt, and position America as the global leader in the 21st-century digital economy,” said Michael.

The SEC explained that creating clear digital asset rules could expand digital assets beyond Bitcoin, pushing their global market from today’s roughly $1 trillion up to about $590 trillion in the future, with the US dominating this sector.

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