SEC Adds a Dozen Tokens to the List of Unregistered Securities

• SEC has classified more than $115 billion of crypto as unregistered securities.
• The estimated number came after the SEC’s recent addition of a few coins in the lawsuit against Binance.
• The recently added assets include BNB, BUSD, SOL, ADA, MATIC, COTI, AXS, ATOM, SAND, and MANA.

According to the latest report, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has deemed more than $115 billion of crypto as unregistered securities. The current estimated number of “unregistered securities” came after the recent addition of a few more digital assets to the category by the SEC in its lawsuit against Binance.

As per the report, on Monday the regulators incorporated a dozen tokens into the category of unregistered securities, which the SEC affirmed as the result of years of investigation. The newly deemed tokens include BNB, Binance USD (BUSD), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Cosmos (ATOM), The Sandbox (SAND), Decentraland (MANA), Axie Infinity (AXS) and COTI (COTI).

Jeff Dorman, the Chief Investment Officer at Arca, the asset management firm, pointed out the exchanges that would be seriously affected by the SEC’s move. He quoted:

Who actually gets hurt by this is Coinbase, Kraken, and other US-based exchanges, who then have to make a decision on whether to delist and US market makers, who potentially have to stop making markets on some of the tokens being listed as securities.

The commission has also listed other major cryptocurrencies including Ripple’s XRP and LBRY’s LBC as unregistered securities. The SEC Chair Gary Gensler asserted that he has informed the exchanges that they are subject to the commission’s investor-protection laws and are supposed to register with the SEC. He also added that the exchanges that hesitate to comply with the laws would face further complications in pursuing their trades.

Since the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao with allegations of trading unregistered cryptocurrencies, the exchange has been in trouble. A recent development in the case was the rumors on the resignation of Zhao and the accession of the company’s Head of Regional Markets, Richard Teng as the new CEO.

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