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Matthias Knab, Opalesque for New Managers:

SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce has put operators of crypto vaults and onchain lending strategies on notice that their activities may fall squarely within the federal securities laws, in a statement published on 22 July 2026 titled "Headstands and Summervaults."

The message is blunt. Peirce acknowledges the extensive work the Commission, its Crypto Task Force and staff have done over the past 18 months to clarify when crypto assets and activities are subject to the securities laws - work that has established that many of them are not. But she warns that this does not mean none of them are. Anyone performing gymnastics to read the law so that it does not apply to assets and activities well within its scope, she writes, is heading for "a painful fall." The better approach, in her view, is to work with the Commission to find a compliant path forward.

The onchain principle

Peirce frames the statement as an extension of a principle she set out last summer, when she reminded market participants that tokenized securities remain securities. The broader point: moving an activity that falls within the scope of the federal securities laws onchain does not, as a general matter, move it outside them.

Why vaults are in scope

Vaults have drawn attention recently as a means for crypto asset holders to generate yield, using smar......................

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