For any currency, crypto or fiat, liquidity is important, almost critical. And therefore any news about potentially improving the liquidity of STEEM is great news in my opinion.
By the way, SEC is not treating cryptocurrencies as currencies, but as pieces of property, and as such purposely hurdles the transactions with crypto for people who pay their taxes.
But let's talk about the good news for STEEM.
As you probably know, STEEM is listed on Binance.com - the international website of Binance - but it's not listed on Binance.us. And the American market is obviously important. Binance is one of the top exchanges and is likely to keep its status among Americans as well, after the platform split from this fall.
You might've read about the poll Binance America is running on Twitter about new cryptos to add to their new US-based platform. Here is the poll.
You would really help if you replied with #STEEM (with or without additional comments).
It doesn't matter if you are an American or not. If STEEM is listed on Binance.us, Americans who prefer Binance have access to it and have an easier way of transacting STEEM.
About two days ago, 
That is one more step for improving adoption, because using STEEM at ATMs and POS's is a great step forward.
I don't think the cards are a traditional Visa, MasterCard, AmEx etc. so it is important where they are accepted (at what brands of ATMs, POS's, from what countries etc.).
But none the less, this is one step forward, and it doesn't go through bitcoin, it's STEEM to fiat and vice versa.
Finally, I saw a post today by 
This is important because Bithumb is one of the biggest exchanges in Korea (and we know how big the Korean community is on Steem), because there are currently 10m STEEM on Bithumb, and because it comes after a long period (since March this year) during which deposits and withdrawals were stopped.
More liquid doesn't mean price increasing. It can, but it doesn't have to. More liquid means better chances of adoption.