Non-fungible tokens and memecoins are neither securities nor commodities, according to White House crypto czar David Sacks. Instead, he defines them as “collectibles.”
“It’s like a baseball card or a stamp,” Sacks said in an interview with Fox Business on Thursday, referencing Trump’s explosively popular memecoin. “People buy it because they want to commemorate something.”
The famous venture capitalist’s comments touched on a long-running debate about the crypto industry in general: how exactly to treat different digital assets. Some argue that digital assets are securities, which are tradable financial assets like stocks. But others say they’re commodities, or raw materials that can be bought and sold, like gold and wheat. The classification differences have vast regulatory implications.
“There’s a few different categories here, so defining the market structure is important,” said Sacks.
Securities and tax law implications
There is already a legal definition of “collectible” under U.S. tax code, which applies to things like art or antiques.
“For tax purposes, your capital gains rate is materially higher,” says Patrick Sigmon, a tax attorney and partner at law firm Davis Polk.
But there is no market regulations that apply to collectibles under U.S. securities law, according to Joe Hall, a capital markets attorney and partner at Davis Polk. He’s quick to point out that just because Sacks publicly called memecoins and NFTs collectibles that doesn’t change their legal status. But he adds that Sacks’ comments “suggests a viewpoint that it would not be appropriate to regulate these things the way we regulate securities.”
Despite kicking off a flurry of questions about how crypto assets will be defined moving forward, Sacks ended his interview by saying he hoped the new regulatory environment under Trump will drive crypto businesses back to the U.S.
“What the industry wants more than anything else is regulatory clarity,” he said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com