The United States securities regulator has now accused an estimated 67 cryptocurrencies of being classified as “securities.” This number has increased after the regulator included additional cryptocurrencies in its lawsuits against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase.
Over the years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has engaged in various litigations that have resulted in the identification of these 67 cryptocurrencies as securities, based on its classification criteria.
In the recent case against Binance, the SEC introduced 10 cryptocurrencies into the securities classification. These include BNB, Binance USD, Solana, Cardano, Polygon, Cosmos, The Sandbox, Decentraland, Axie Infinity, and COTI.
In its lawsuit against Coinbase, the SEC named 13 cryptocurrencies, which reinforced the classification of SOL, ADA, MATIC, SAND, and AXS as securities. Additionally, the SEC added six more cryptocurrencies to the list: Chiliz (CHZ), Flow (FLOW), Internet Computer, Near, Voyager Token (VGX), and Nexo.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has identified several notable cryptocurrencies as securities. Ripple’s XRP, LBRY’s LBRY Credits (LBC), and Algorand are among the cryptocurrencies deemed securities by the SEC. It is important to note that LBRY Credits (LBC) is not considered a security for secondary sales. Additionally, when the SEC charged Bittrex in April, Algorand was named alongside five other cryptocurrencies as securities.
In February, the SEC charged Terraform Labs with fraud, leading to the classification of 16 crypto assets as securities. These assets include Terra Luna Classic (LUNC), Terra Classic USD (USTC), Mirror Protocol (MIR), and approximately 13 Mirrored Assets (mAssets) designed to replicate the prices of stocks like Apple and Tesla.
As a result of its involvement in the crypto space, the SEC now oversees more than $100 billion worth of the market, accounting for approximately 10% of the total crypto market capitalization of $1.09 trillion.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler has expressed the view that “everything other than Bitcoin” is considered a security falling under the jurisdiction of the agency. According to the crypto data site CoinMarketCap, there are approximately 25,500 cryptocurrencies currently in existence.
SEC-deemed crypto ‘securities’
The SEC has recently announced the classification of 54 crypto tokens as securities. These tokens include XRP, Telegram’s Gram (TON), LBRY Credits (LBC), OmiseGo (OMG), DASH, Algorand, Naga (NGC), Monolith (TKN), IHT Real Estate (IHT), Power Ledger (POWR), Kromatica (KROM), DFX Finance (DFX), Amp (AMP), Rally (RLY), Rari Governance Token (RGT), DerivaDAO (DDX), XYO Network (XYO), Liechtenstein Cryptoasset Exchange (LCX), Kin (KIN), Salt Lending (SALT), Beaxy Token (BXY), DragonChain (DRGN), Tron (TRX), BitTorrent (BTT), Terra USD (UST), Luna (LUNA), Mirror Protocol (MIR), Mango (MNGO), Ducat (DUCAT), Locke (LOCKE), EthereumMax (EMAX), Hydro (HYDRO), BitConnect (BCC), Meta 1 Coin (META1), Filecoin (FIL), BNB (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Cosmos (ATOM), The Sandbox (SAND), Decentraland (MANA), Axie Infinity (AXS), COTI (COTI), Paragon (PRG), AirToken (AIR), Chiliz (CHZ), Flow (FLOW), Internet Computer (ICP), Near (NEAR), Voyager Token (VGX), and Nexo (NEXO).
Furthermore, the SEC has determined that 13 Mirror Protocol mAssets are also considered securities. These mAssets include Mirrored Apple Inc. (mAAPL), Mirrored Amazon.com, Inc. (mAMZN), Mirrored Alibaba Group Holding Limited (mBABA), Mirrored Alphabet Inc. (mGOOGL), Mirrored Microsoft Corporation (mMSFT), Mirrored Netflix, Inc. (mNFLX), Mirrored Tesla, Inc. (mTSLA), Mirrored Twitter Inc. (mTWTR), Mirrored iShares Gold Trust (mIAU), Mirrored Invesco QQQ Trust (mQQQ), Mirrored iShares Silver Trust (mSLV), Mirrored United States Oil Fund, LP (mUSO), and Mirrored ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (mVIXY).