The US Securities and Exchange Commission has made it its mission to target various cryptocurrency platforms, albeit with questionable success so far.
Next on the list is NFT platform OpenSea, whose CEO moved to X to express the team’s disappointment at the regulator’s move.
Devin Finzer, chief executive of OpenSea, tweeted that the company he runs is the latest to receive a Wells notice from the SEC, which indicated that non-fungible tokens available to buy or sell on the platform could be unregistered values.
“We’re shocked that the SEC would make such a radical move against creators and artists. But we’re ready to stand up and fight back. By targeting NFTs, the SEC would stifle innovation on an even broader scale: hundreds of thousands of Artists and creatives online are at risk and many don’t have the resources to defend themselves.”
He described NFTs as “creative assets” such as art, collectibles, event tickets and others, which should not fall into the same category as securities such as collateralized debt obligations and some crypto assets .
Finzer described a number of artists who had filed lawsuits against the agency, which he said “describe their fear that the sale of their art and music could be considered unregistered securities offerings.”
In addition, OpenSea’s CEO said his team will pledge $5 million to “help cover the legal expenses of NFT creators and developers who receive a notice from Wells.”
Some of the crypto companies targeted by the SEC include Ripple, Coinbase, Binance, Uniswap, Kraken and Consensys.
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