OpeanSea, a leading NFT marketplace, appears to have caught the attention of the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC). According to a statement from the company’s CEO, the most notorious regulator in the crypto field has sent a Wells Notice to OpenSea.
Earlier today, co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer joined X to report“We are shocked that the SEC would take such drastic action against creators and artists. But we are ready to stand up and fight.”
He further added: “Cryptocurrencies have long been in the SEC’s crosshairs, and companies love them @muntbasis, @Uniswap, @RobinhoodApp, @krakenfxAnd @Consensys have fought against the SEC’s one-track approach of “regulation by enforcement.”
NFTs: to be securities or not to be securities?
A Wells Notice is a formal notice issued by the SEC expressing its intent to take legal action against the company. In this particular case, the commission claims that the company violated securities laws because they consider NFTs on OpenSea to be securities.
However, OpenSea’s chief argued that they “are essentially creative goods: art, collectibles, video game items, domain names, event tickets, and more.He further claimed that ‘digital art’ should not be placed on the same scale as ‘collateralized debt obligations’.
The story is still developing.
