Crypto Council for Innovation launches Vault Coalition for regulatory clarity

A new coalition is forming, focused on crypto vaults, an increasingly popular mechanism for depositing digital assets and earning yield. On Friday, the Crypto Council for Innovation launched the Vault Coalition, with backing led by Galaxy and Morpho. BitGo, a16z, the Avalanche Policy Coalition, and Sharplink are also part of the group — because nothing says "we need clarity" quite like a roster this long.

Crypto vaults are smart contracts that pool together deposited funds, which are then put to work generating yield. The process then gives each depositor a vault receipt token representing their share. Receipt tokens, in other words, are just a way to say "this yield is mine" in writing.

Over the past year, firms have launched vaults, including Kraken and Tesseract. Despite their growing experimentation, CCI said vaults remain subject to regulatory ambiguity — which, in crypto, is the default state of nearly everything.

"We are at an inflection point," said Morpho General Counsel Christopher Robins in the statement. "Institutional participants are prepared to deploy, but they require a clear legal roadmap to move forward. The Vault Coalition exists to transform industry expertise into the foundational standards the market demands."

Regulators in the U.S. have opened doors for digital assets amid a friendlier administration to the industry. Over the past year, the Securities and Exchange Commission has put forth a token taxonomy to clarify its stance on cryptocurrencies. SEC Chair Paul Atkins has also embarked on "Project Crypto" to update the agency's rules around digital assets.

CCI also references a speech Atkins made last month, where he said the agency needs to clarify how its regulatory framework applies to software applications and specifically called for clarity around crypto vaults. The SEC, it seems, is finally reading the source code.

The new coalition will focus on writing legal analysis, developing policy principles, and focusing on regulatory treatment, CCI said.

"Regulatory treatment of vault structures should be grounded in how they actually function, not in analogies to incumbent financial products that do not map onto the underlying technology," the group said in the statement.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures. © 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.