TL;DR
- Hyperliquid Policy Center supports the SEC’s proposed Regulation Crypto Assets but asks for five refinements covering airdrops, secondary trading, safe-harbor eligibility, token buybacks and federal preemption.
- HPC wants administrative airdrop steps excluded from “consideration” and clearer rules allowing exempt tokens to trade through onchain protocols and other intermediaries.
- The group also seeks a usable safe harbor, consistent control definitions and durable federal preemption after projects fully satisfy the framework nationwide.
Hyperliquid Policy Center is urging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt Regulation Crypto Assets and proposes five changes covering token distributions, secondary trading and project maturity. In its October 19 comment, HPC backed the proposal, including fundraising exemptions and a safe harbor. For readers following Hyperliquid, the filing supports the SEC framework but argues that several provisions need clearer treatment.
HPC Seeks Five Changes to Regulation Crypto Assets
The first recommendation covers airdrops. HPC wants the SEC to codify its March analysis that an airdrop does not involve an investment of money when recipients provide no tangible and definable consideration. It argues that administrative steps such as connecting a wallet or completing sanctions screening should not become payment for tokens. That position connects with debate around SEC crypto rulemaking. HPC asks the Commission to distinguish compliance or delivery steps from services effectively performed in exchange for tokens.
A second recommendation covers secondary trading. HPC says tokens distributed under the proposed exemptions need clarity on whether onchain protocols and unregistered persons can facilitate resales. Its third recommendation concerns the safe harbor, which requires certification that a project has completed essential managerial efforts. HPC argues some projects may view that filing as implying a prior investment-contract relationship when counsel concluded none existed. Similar questions surround software safe-harbor proposals. The group wants projects to use the protection without making a tacit admission about earlier legal status.
The fourth request covers token buybacks and network control. HPC asks the SEC to incorporate staff guidance on buybacks, apply one “central party” concept across the rule and distinguish programmatic buybacks from discretionary purchases. It also says dispersed validators, users and network participants should not automatically form a controlling group merely because incentives align. The recommendation seeks a more consistent issuer and control framework without treating aligned economic incentives as centralized management.
Finally, HPC wants federal preemption to remain effective after a project satisfies the safe harbor. As proposed, the group says that protection would end then, potentially exposing tokens to registration regimes across more than 50 jurisdictions. HPC argues that could discourage projects from completing development. The comment follows other Hyperliquid Policy Center efforts around U.S. onchain market regulation. Regulation Crypto Assets remains an SEC proposal, and HPC’s five recommendations are requests for changes rather than rules already adopted by the Commission.
