US financial regulators have issued a clarification on how federal securities laws apply to crypto assets, and Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are among the direct beneficiaries. The joint guidance, which was published by the SEC and CFTC, formally established five categories for digital assets and explicitly named both meme coins as digital commodities, placing them in the same regulatory class as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP.
Dogecoin And Shiba Inu Officially Classified As Digital Commodities
An interesting decision from US regulators is now setting the stage for a possible turnaround in the price of meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. For the first time ever, this clarification directly names the leading names of meme cryptocurrencies (Dogecoin and Shiba Inu) as digital commodities, removing them from the security debate that has weighed on the crypto industry for years.
The joint interpretive release by the SEC and the CFTC finally ended more than a decade of jurisdictional dispute between the two US regulators over how to classify digital assets. According to the release, crypto assets are now divided into five categories: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities.
The first four carry no securities designation by default, while digital securities, which are essentially tokenized versions of traditional financial instruments such as stocks and bonds, are still subject to federal securities laws.
On the other hand, digital commodities are assets whose value derives from a functioning blockchain ecosystem and supply-and-demand dynamics, with decentralization also an important criterion. Both Dogecoin and Shiba Inu were placed in this category alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Cardano, among others.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that the guidance was designed to provide regulatory clarity “in clear terms” and confirmed that blockchain network activities such as mining, on-chain staking, and protocol airdrops do not automatically qualify as securities offerings.
What The Classification Means For DOGE And SHIB Specifically
The market’s reaction so far has been somewhat muted. Price data show that crypto prices did not surge immediately even after the guidance was released. However, the importance of being classified as a commodity cannot be overstated for Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, considering the fact that these two started as a meme. A February 2025 clarification from the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance had indicated that meme coins were not securities, but that guidance stopped short of a formal classification.
Both Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have spent recent months moving sideways or struggling to break above resistance levels in terms of price action. However, this might change very soon. Commodity status equates Dogecoin and Shiba Inu with the same regulations backing Bitcoin and Ethereum Spot ETFs in the United States. Spot Dogecoin ETFs are already live and Shiba Inu might be next. Interestingly, Grayscale Investments has already indicated that SHIB qualifies for a spot ETF under the SEC’s Generic Listing Standards framework.
