The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has increased the number of cryptocurrencies classified as securities. It is a significant event that will have an influence on the cryptocurrency market. The SEC has now classified at least 61 cryptocurrencies as securities with its most recent lawsuit against Binance. It has an impact on tokens worth an estimated $100 billion that are now traded on the market.
These 61 cryptocurrencies have been identified by the SEC as securities as a result of annoying litigation, defining its interpretation of which digital assets fall under its regulatory scope. Ten additional cryptocurrencies have been added to the list of securities due to the most recent case against Binance.
Today we charged Binance Holdings Ltd. (Binance); U.S.-based affiliate, BAM Trading Services Inc., which, together with Binance, operates https://t.co/swcxioZKVP; and their founder, Changpeng Zhao, with a variety of securities law violations.https://t.co/H1wgGgR5ir pic.twitter.com/IWTb7Et86H
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) June 5, 2023
The following securities cryptocurrencies have been added
- BNB (Binance Coin)
- BUSD (Binance USD)
- Solana (SOL)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Polygon (MATIC)
- Cosmos (ATOM)
- The Sandbox (SAND)
- Decentraland (MANA)
- Axie Infinity (AXS)
- COTI (COTI)
These tokens join the list of well-known cryptocurrencies that the SEC previously regarded as securities, including Ripple’s XRP, LBRY Credits (LBC), and Algorand (ALGO), among others.
The SEC’s classification of cryptocurrencies underwent its largest consolidation earlier this year when it accused Terraform Labs of fraud. In that case, 16 crypto assets, including LUNC, USTC, MIR, and mAssets, were classified as securities. They sought to mimic the pricing of stocks like Apple and Tesla.
With the addition of these 61 cryptocurrencies, the SEC’s regulatory authority now covers a market worth more than $100 billion, or about 10% of the $1.09 trillion overall market capitalization for cryptocurrencies.
According to Gary Gensler, the chairman of the SEC, “everything other than Bitcoin” is a security and is subject to regulation by the agency. There are over 25,500 cryptocurrencies in circulation.
These 48 tokens have been formally designed as securities by the SEC as part of its continuous effort to offer clarity and safeguard investors:
[XRP, Gram (TON), LBC, OMG, DASH, ALGO, NGC, TKN, IHT, POWR, KROM, DFX, AMP, RLY, RGT, DDX, XYO, LCX, KIN, SALT, BXY, DRGN, TRX, BTT, UST, LUNA, MIR, MNGO, DUCAT, LOCKE, EMAX, HYDRO, BCC, META1, FIL, BNB, BUSD, SOL, ADA, MATIC, ATOM, SAND, MANA, AXS, COTI, PRG, AIR].
Furthermore, the following 13 Mirror Protocol mAssets have been classified as securities by the SEC:
[mAAPL, mAMZN, mBABA, mGOOGL, mMSFT, mNFLX, mTSLA, mTWTR, mIAU, mQQQ, mSLV, mUSO, mVIXY
Industry participants and investors are intently monitoring subsequent developments and potential ramifications on the wider cryptocurrency environment as the SEC broadens its regulatory framework to cover a bigger segment of the cryptocurrency sector.
