GMAC adopts digital‑asset taxonomy to standardize classification for regulators and markets

The Global Markets Advisory Committee adopted a consensus digital‑asset classification and taxonomy developed by its Digital Asset Market Subcommittee. The taxonomy is intended to help regulators and market participants map digital offerings to existing regulatory frameworks and identify where new interpretation or rules may be needed.

The subcommittee defined a "digital asset" for the taxonomy as a controllable electronic record that is uniquely identifiable and transferable, and excluded ordinary internal book‑and‑record entries maintained solely on a financial institution's ledgers. The taxonomy emphasizes assessing features such as issuance, pegging, rights conferred, fungibility, redemptability and whether the record is a digital twin of an off‑chain asset or digital native.

Diana Barrero Zas and Adam Farcus presented the subcommittee's categories: financial digital assets (tokenized securities and derivatives), alternative digital assets (tokenized non‑financial interests), crypto assets (native non‑redeemable tokens), functional digital assets (utility/governance tokens), and settlement/controllable electronic records (tokens used to facilitate post‑trade processing). The group stressed that not every feature appears in every asset and that the taxonomy is designed to be a living, updateable framework.

GMAC members asked about the perimeter between ordinary digitized financial records and transferable digital assets; the subcommittee clarified that the taxonomy focuses on uniquely transferable records and use‑case mapping. The committee adopted the taxonomy by voice vote; it will be submitted to the Commission for consideration and the subcommittee plans follow‑on work on NFTs, infrastructure and lifecycle use cases.