Preview of the new U.S. crypto draft "TBAA"! BTC and ETH classified as digital commodities, SEC and CFTC handle staking tokens with shared authority.

The U.S. Congress released the draft TBAA Act on 5/5, which legislates crypto assets into categories and defines how each unit's (SEC and CFTC) should be regulated. The draft also proposes clear regulations on issues such as DeFi, stablecoins, digital asset exchanges and self-custodial rights to further ensure compliance with the U.S. crypto industry.

TBAA Bill Timeline and Key Context

This draft official document is numbered "TBAA.XML" and was edited and submitted by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services in early May 2025. It is currently in the discussion draft stage.

The image shows the cover of the TBAA draft document. Bitcoin and Ethereum may be classified as digital commodities.

The TBAA bill clearly defines "digital commodity" (Digital Commodity) as an encrypted asset whose value is closely related to a certain blockchain system, for example:

Generate through on-chain mechanisms

as a token for paying gas fees or with governance functions

However, it cannot be a "stablecoin", cannot be a "security", nor can it simply be a token representing agricultural products or investment funds. Bitcoin and Ethereum may belong to this category.

Stablecoins need to have cash flow, endorsements from legal institutions, and be supervised by regulatory bodies.

The draft defines a legal stablecoin (Permitted Payment Stablecoin) that must:

Pegged to fiat currency ( USD )

Issued by institutions regulated by federal or state governments.

and possesses market expectations of exchange commitments or reasonable stable value

In simple terms, it means there needs to be cash flow and endorsement from legal institutions, like USDC and PYUSD type stablecoins.

Automatic decision-making and no single controller are what define Decentralized Finance.

The draft defines "decentralized governance" at the federal level for the first time, emphasizing:

No single person or group is in control.

Decision-making is open, fair, and programmatic consensus formation.

Members are independent of each other and cannot be regarded as the same entity.

Key highlights of the significant provisions: self-custody rights, registration thresholds, clear division of responsibilities between SEC & CFTC

Here are the highlights of this bill:

Clear protection of self-custody rights: The government cannot force the American people to put their assets into exchanges, and the people can legally own hardware wallets, software wallets, and trade freely.

Exchanges, brokers, and market makers must register with the CFTC: operators must comply with information disclosure, asset protection regulations, and pay relevant fees.

SEC and CFTC handle hybrid assets separately: If a digital asset has both commodity and security characteristics, ( staking tokens ), the SEC can establish rules for "hybrid digital asset trading."

TBAA Extended Research: NFT, Decentralized Finance, and ecosystem maturity are all included in policy considerations.

The draft also stipulates:

Conduct research on the specific applications of long wick candle and Decentralized Finance.

Research whether it is necessary to enhance the financial education of digital asset holders.

and continue to clarify which blockchain ecosystems can be referred to as "mature systems"

From ambiguity to clarity, the United States lays a solid foundation for encryption assets.

Currently, TBAA is still a draft, but its structure is complete and definitions are clear, providing predictable policy directions for Decentralized Finance, stablecoins, self-custodians, and on-chain governors.

If successful, the United States may become the jurisdiction with the clearest definitions of "digital goods" and "digital securities" in the world, laying the foundation for the next phase of innovation in the encryption industry.

(The latest progress on the US encryption bill! Senator Gillibrand: Start with stablecoins, if we don't legislate, we'll wait for the next FTX)

This article previews the new U.S. encryption draft "TBAA"! BTC and ETH are classified as digital commodities, with the SEC and CFTC handling staking tokens in a decentralized manner. It first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.