Why SAB 121’s end is a big deal

Leader of incoming crypto task force SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce revealed SAB 121 will be no more

share


This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce — two days after being named leader of a new crypto task force — revealed SAB 121 would be no more.

Loading Tweet..

Some context: A Staff Accounting Bulletin, or SAB, represents interpretations and policies followed by SEC divisions in administering federal securities laws-related disclosure requirements.

The SEC published SAB 121 in March 2022. It notably said that an entity “should present a liability on its balance sheet to reflect its obligation to safeguard the crypto-assets held for its platform users.”

Why does the crypto industry care so much about the agency rescinding this? 

Cantor Fitzgerald Howard Lutnick explained the issue pretty well in a video he posted to X in September — a couple months before Trump nominated him to lead the Commerce department.

There’s a misunderstanding that TradFi players don’t want to transact in bitcoin, Lutnick claimed. He added that for banks to custody a client’s bitcoin, “they would have to set aside their own money equal to that amount in sort of like a jail.”

Indeed, financial organizations told SEC Chair Gary Gensler that the bulletin “has curbed the ability of the associations’ members to develop and bring to market at scale certain digital asset products and services.”

The upshot? As VanEck research execs wrote in a December post detailing 2025 crypto predictions, this repeal “will pave the way for banks and brokers to custody spot crypto, further integrating digital assets into traditional financial infrastructure.”

Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer argued in a Friday note that this SAB 121 rescission “represents an even more meaningful game-changer for bitcoin and the broader crypto ecosystem” than a potential strategic bitcoin reserve does.

While SAB 121 was published in 2022, it wasn’t until last year that Congress sent a bill overturning the guidance to Joe Biden’s desk. He vetoed it.

Ava Labs deputy general counsel Wee Ming Choon told me last month that rescinding SAB 121 would be an act of “good will” that a new agency administration could take quickly. It seems that take was correct. 

Rest up this weekend, as another wave of developments is sure to come.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

The Stripe-acquired firm has big plans for a streamlined, multi-wallet future

article-image

Both founders of the former crypto lender have now landed in new crypto industry roles

article-image

Bitcoin’s recent peak is a victory lap for curvers left and right

article-image

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo says institutions are eager to get exposure to tokenization

article-image

Trade isn’t war and prosperity isn’t a contest