According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s lawsuit filed on Wednesday against Gary Wang, co-founder of crypto-asset exchange FTX, and Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, FTX’s platform token FTT serves as an investment The contract is for sale and is itself a “security”. Industry insiders believe that such a determination may have a profound impact on the industry.
The author has been paying attention to the regulatory policies and characterization of crypto assets in the United States in recent years, and has previously written several articles to introduce and analyze them. The author believes that this time the US SEC considers FTT a security, which is unexpected but also reasonable. The reason why it is unexpected lies in the widespread spread of the FTX thunder incident and the influence of FTX. There are countless cases in which the SEC believes that many crypto assets are securities in other lawsuits, but it is rare to see such influence and fermentation. public opinion.
In addition, the head of the SEC has stated in public more than once that, except for Bitcoin and Ethereum, most other crypto-assets are securities, so it is expected that FTT is a security this time.
First of all, we should explain in advance that the current statement that FTT is a security comes from the opinion of the US SEC, but it is not the final conclusion. In the United States, whether a product or instrument is a “security” in the legal sense is ultimately determined by the court. When the SEC believes that market entities have issued unregistered securities and there is a dispute as to whether these products are securities, the SEC has the right to file a lawsuit in court and request the court to make a final ruling on the nature of the products in dispute. The current lawsuit filed by the SEC falls into this situation. After all, when FTT was recognized as a security, the SEC’s jurisdiction over the matter was legitimate.