The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants a federal appeals court to take up one of the thorniest questions plaguing the cryptocurrency industry: whether or not its issuers should be forced to register under federal law. 

The question of registration has been the big stick in the government's carrot-free fight against crypto trading, with one expert calling it a second "era" of enforcement following the agency's earlier efforts to combat fraud within the sector. But now, as many digital asset companies look overseas following minimal guidance from regulators or congress, a judge in the Southern District of New York has thrown a lifeboat to crypto traders, one the SEC is asking the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to reel in.