Spirit Airlines Airbus A320neo approaching Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Photo by Acroterion, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Image cropped/resized from original. No endorsement implied.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 20, 2026 – (KOREWIRE) – Following the May 16, 2026, 10-year anniversary of Regulation Crowdfunding becoming available to U.S. issuers and investors, the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) today commented on the public attention surrounding the “Let’s Buy Spirit Air” campaign, a viral effort inviting everyday Americans to pledge support for a potential community-backed acquisition of Spirit Airlines.
CfPA is not endorsing the specific Buy Spirit campaign, any proposed transaction, or any securities offering. But CfPA strongly endorses the larger public impulse behind it: Americans want more ways to invest in, support, and share ownership in the businesses and institutions that matter to their communities.
“This moment is not just about one airline. It is about a broader shift in public expectations around ownership, participation, and access to private capital markets,” said Brian Belley, 2026 President of CfPA.
Regulation Crowdfunding, commonly known as Reg CF, became effective on May 16, 2016, after the SEC adopted final rules under Title III of the JOBS Act. The regulation created a legal pathway for ordinary investors – not only wealthy accredited investors – to invest in private U.S. companies through regulated online platforms. Today, eligible companies may raise up to $5 million in a 12-month period under Reg CF through an SEC-registered intermediary, while Regulation A provides a separate pathway for larger public-access offerings of up to $75 million under Tier 2.
Over the past decade, regulated investment crowdfunding has moved from a new, untested experiment to a well-established market for retail investors. According to Kingscrowd, since Reg CF became available in May 2016, more than 8,700 companies have raised over $2.4 billion from more than 2 million ordinary Americans, with the typical retail investor commitment averaging approximately $1,800. Regulation A has added even greater scale: according to SEC data, issuers have reported approximately $10.5 billion in proceeds since the modern framework was adopted. Together, Reg CF and Regulation A have generated more than $12.9 billion in reported capital formation, connecting private U.S. companies with millions of investors.
These companies have also demonstrated notable resilience. Kingscrowd data indicate failure rates below 10 percent among Reg CF-funded companies – far below commonly cited failure rates for venture-backed startups. For the CfPA, ten years of Regulation Crowdfunding have demonstrated that community capital is an important engine for the U.S. economy, funding companies outside of the public markets.
“The first decade of Reg CF proved that everyone can be responsible participants in American capital formation. The next decade should build on that success by expanding access, improving education, and modernizing the rules so community capital can reach its full potential,” said Jenny Kassan, 2026 Chair of the Board of Directors of CfPA.
The public reaction to the Buy Spirit campaign should be understood against this larger backdrop. Regulated investment crowdfunding has already helped thousands of U.S. companies raise capital from millions of ordinary Americans. The Buy Spirit moment shows that Americans want to have a meaningful stake in company ownership and investment opportunities. CfPA does not endorse the specific Buy Spirit campaign, but it does endorse the broader instinct behind it: ownership of economic assets should not be reserved only for institutions and the wealthy.
According to figures displayed by the campaign in its public pledge updates, the campaign reported approximately $337 million total pledged from 371,552 total pledgers as of May 9, with an average pledge of $907, against a stated $1.75 billion target raise. A prior campaign-reported pledge update dated May 6, 2026 showed approximately $214 million pledged from 247,511 pledgers, with an average pledge of $865. Those numbers are striking – and they create an important public education opportunity.
“We are not here to validate a particular campaign. We are here to say that the public reaction is real, and it deserves to be taken seriously. People want ownership to be more democratic. Regulated investment crowdfunding can help make that possible,” said Brian Christie, Vice Chair of CfPA.
At the same time, the Buy Spirit effort highlights just how difficult it is to finance a transaction of this scale under today’s state and federal securities laws. Even with extraordinary public enthusiasm, a community-backed acquisition targeting $1.75 billion is far beyond what existing mainstream crowdfunding pathways were designed to handle.
Under current federal securities exemptions:
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Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) permits raises of up to $5 million in a 12-month period and is open to ordinary investors, but that cap is a tiny fraction of the amount a transaction like Spirit would require.
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Regulation A Tier 2 permits raises of up to $75 million in a 12-month period and is also open to retail investors, but even that level is far short of the capital needed for a transaction of this size.
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Regulation D Rule 506(c) permits an unlimited raise, but participation is limited to accredited investors, excluding most of the very people who have shown support for the Buy Spirit campaign.
In other words, the Buy Spirit moment shows both the reality of public demand and the structural limits of the current legal framework.
That is why we need to update our nation’s securities laws. CfPA’s official policy platform calls for increasing the Reg CF annual limit from $5 million to $20 million, increasing the Regulation A Tier 2 annual limit from $75 million to $150 million, and removing statutory limits that restrict the SEC’s ability to further adjust Reg CF caps as markets evolve. At the same time, the CfPA’s policy platform advocates for improvements in transparency and investor protection. Recent Senate legislative proposals have gone even further, suggesting that $50 million may be an appropriate cap for exemptive frameworks designed to support capital formation for certain innovative companies. The comparison simply underscores that today’s $5 million Reg CF cap is modest relative to the scale of public demand and the capital formation thresholds now being debated in Congress. If we are to meet the demand for broader access to investment opportunities, securities regulations must be up to date to both increase capital formation opportunities and to ensure meaningful investor protection.
The next decade of regulated investment crowdfunding should focus on modernizing the framework so that more Americans can participate in opportunities that have historically been limited to institutions, insiders, and accredited investors. That does not mean every viral idea can or should become a securities offering. It means that when public enthusiasm emerges around a serious business opportunity – whether a local enterprise, a community infrastructure project, a growth company, or a high-profile effort like Buy Spirit – there should be clearer, more scalable, and more inclusive pathways to channel that demand through transparent, compliant, and investor-protective structures.
“The Buy Spirit moment shows why modernization matters. Today’s rules helped open private markets to everyday investors, but the next decade requires a framework that can support larger, more ambitious forms of community ownership. As a portal operator, I hope that legislators will raise the Reg CF cap, expand Regulation A Tier 2, and give regulators the flexibility to keep pace with market demand,” said Levi Brackman, CEO of the SEC-registered and FINRA member, Invown Portal.
CfPA sees the Buy Spirit moment as part of a broader trend: Americans increasingly want to move from being only consumers, users, donors, or fans to becoming owners. That trend can be seen in local businesses, climate and infrastructure projects, professional services, real estate, media, sports-adjacent communities, and mission-driven enterprises. Regulated investment crowdfunding makes this possible, but the regulatory framework must evolve if it is to meet the next generation of public demand.
CfPA invites journalists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, and community leaders who want to understand what regulated crowdfunding can and cannot do today – and help shape what it could become over the next 10 years – to attend the annual Regulated Investment Crowdfunding Summit, October 20-21, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Registration is available at www.ricsummit.org.
About the Crowdfunding Professional Association
The mission of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) is to foster the growth of the Regulated Investment Crowdfunding economy by supporting issuers and investors (and potential issuers and investors) and by working with intermediaries, including portal operators, and other Crowdfunding professionals in the broader Crowdfunding ecosystem. On behalf of these constituents and members, the CfPA advocates with regulators and legislators. The CfPA, a U.S. 501(c)(6) nonprofit trade group, carries out its mission through programs, online publishing, annual gatherings, periodic webinars, and by providing guidance to investors and issuers alike.
Learn more at https://CfPA.org, https://www.crowdfundingecosystem.com, or join as a member at https://cfpa.org/joinus.
Media Contact:
Jason Fishman
Vice President | Chair, Growth Committee
Crowdfunding Professional Association, Inc.
Email: press@cfpa.org
Website: https://cfpa.org