Blockstack's Stacks Tokens Could Be Tradable in US Amid New Blockchain Launch

With the launch of a new blockchain – Stacks 2.0 – earlier next year, Blockstack PBC's cryptocurrency Stacks token (STX) could be available to investors in the U.S. once it is no longer considered a security under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations, according to public documents.

Blockstack, a decentralized computing platform that aims to put users in control of their data and identity, launched a token sale in 2019 after filing for the SEC's Regulation A+ crowdfunding exemption, which made the company the first approved to raise capital via a token sale through the securities market.

With the adoption of a fully developed version of the Stacks Blockchain – Stacks Blockchain 2.0, which is anticipated at the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021 – it means PBC "will play a significantly reduced role in the Stacks Blockchain ecosystem, and no longer will have the ability to, among other things, unilaterally make changes to the Stacks Blockchain, issue new Stacks [t]okens or otherwise, control or even necessarily influence the development of the Stacks Blockchain 2.0," according to documents released by Muneeb Ali, the co-founder and chief executive of Blockstack PBC, on Dec. 7.

"If true, this is amazing. Unprecedented," according to a tweet by Marco Santori, chief legal officer at crypto exchange Kraken. "This would represent the first-ever transmogrification of a token from a security to a non-security, where the journey was explicitly blessed by the SEC."

The Stacks token is considered a utility token of the project and is used by developers and other users on the Stacks Blockchain as a digital "fuel" to facilitate fess for the registration of digital assets.

Following the announcement, the price of STX went up by 12.25% to $0.266, at the time of writing, according to Messari.