SEC confirms closure of investigation into OpenSea marketplace
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking a new step in its retreat from the war on innovation. This time, regulators announced the abandonment of the investigation into the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, OpenSea. This news could clear the way for that battered sector.
The CEO and co-founder of the platform, Devin Finzer, celebrated the news and stated that it was a victory for the entire digital collectibles sector. “This is a victory for everyone who is creating and building in our space,” he said in a post on X.
In the same text, Finzer comments that “trying to classify NFTs as securities would have been a step backwards, one that misinterprets the law and slows down innovation.” However, the rectification of the regulators with their new direction changes the panorama completely and opens the doors for a commercial revival of the sector.
“Every creator, big or small, will be able to build freely without facing unnecessary barriers,” he said. The investigation into the OpenSea marketplace began in August last year by the SEC’s Gary Gensler administration. The argument is that the platform was illegally trading securities, which constitutes a federal crime.
Gensler also considered that NFTs were unregistered securities under the Howey Test scheme of the securities laws of the early 2000s.
What does the end of the OpenSea investigation represent for the NFT market?
Since the crypto winter of 2022, the NFT market has never fully recovered. Several factors formed a perfect storm that keeps these assets at the bottom of interest among investors. Among these elements, the disappearance of enthusiasm for the Metaverse stands out.