The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has continued to go after crypto projects even after losing several battles against top web3 firms including Ripple Labs, on Thursday, the US SEC sent a Wells notice to the leading NFT marketplace, OpenSea, regarding its business operations against the set securities laws.
The US SEC highlighted that NFTs traded on the OpenSea marketplace are unregistered securities which must go through proper registration.
US SEC Lacks Merit in NFT Regulation
According to Ripple CLO Stuart Alderoty, the US SEC could go against its past ruling if it opts to file a lawsuit against OpenSea for allegedly offering unregistered securities. Stuart reminded the OpenSea community that the US SEC ruled in a 1976 case that art galleries are not securities.
“Based upon the information in your letter, this Division will not recommend any enforcement action to the commission if the packages of lithographs are sold as proposed without compliance with the registration requirements of the Act, in reliance upon your opinion as counsel that the packages are not ‘securities’ within the meaning of section 2 (1) of the Act,” the SEC noted.
Political Witch-hunt?
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently promised to evict SEC Chair Gary Gensler from office if elected in the upcoming elections. Trump, who has been taking crypto donations and promised to enable blockchain development in the United States once elected, has even launched a new NFT collection dubbed ‘America First Collection’.
As the general election approaches, the direct attack on NFTs by the US SEC is viewed as an indirect pressure on Donald Trump from his competitor.
