The Stellar Development Foundation has joined the Blockchain Association's Vaults Workstream to engage the Securities and Exchange Commission and industry peers on regulatory questions around onchain vault technologies, according to an announcement posted by the protocol's official account.
The workstream, launched September 30, 2026, focuses specifically on how vault technologies function and operate onchain rather than the broader custody regulatory framework. The group convenes protocol developers, service providers and policy experts to align on technical standards and help inform SEC guidance as the regulator addresses digital asset storage mechanisms.
The Blockchain Association framed the workstream around what it called a gap between how regulators understand vault systems and how they actually work in production. Vaults in the onchain context typically refer to smart contracts or protocol-level mechanisms that hold and manage user assets, often with tiered access controls or recovery pathways. SEC staff have treated vaults and custody differently depending on whether they involve a centralized custodian or protocol-level code, and the workstream aims to clarify those boundaries through technical demonstration.
Stellar operates a public blockchain designed for payments and cross-border settlement. The protocol has no native vault product but hosts third-party financial applications and anchors, making it an indirect stakeholder in custody and settlement infrastructure policy. SDF's participation reflects the protocol's interest in shaping how U.S. regulators approach decentralized asset storage as more institutions move settlement onchain.
The workstream includes other major crypto firms and protocols alongside the Blockchain Association's existing member base. The group plans to submit technical documentation and policy recommendations to the SEC, though no formal timeline for those submissions has been announced.
SDF joining a policy workstream focused on vault-specific technical questions rather than broad custody regulation narrows the group's initial scope. If the SEC issues guidance tied to the workstream's recommendations, adoption would depend on whether those recommendations address the specific custody and control questions the agency has flagged in enforcement actions against centralized exchanges and custodians.
