The United States securities regulator has accused approximately 61 cryptocurrencies of being a “security”, following the addition of a few more identified in its lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance.
Over the years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has engaged in various litigations and identified which cryptocurrencies it deems as securities, resulting in the 61 cryptocurrencies being accused of being a “security”.
In its most recent lawsuit against Binance, the SEC categorized 10 cryptocurrencies as securities. These include Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Cosmos (ATOM), The Sandbox (SAND), Decentraland (MANA), Axie Infinity (AXS), and COTI (COTI).
Ripple’s XRP, LBRY’s LBRY Credits (LBC), and Algorand (ALGO) are among the other notable cryptocurrencies that the SEC has classified as securities. In April, the SEC charged Bittrex and identified ALGO alongside five other cryptocurrencies as securities.
The SEC’s largest lumping of cryptocurrencies into securities occurred in February when it charged Terraform Labs with fraud. Sixteen crypto assets, including Terra Luna Classic (LUNC), Terra Classic USD (USTC), Mirror Protocol (MIR), and 13 Mirrored Assets (mAssets) that aimed to copy stock prices such as Apple and Tesla, were classified as securities.
The SEC’s regulatory authority in the crypto space now covers over $100 billion, or around 10% of the $1.09 trillion total crypto market capitalization. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has stated that “everything other than Bitcoin” falls under the agency’s remit. However, there are around 25,500 cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap.
The SEC has identified 48 crypto tokens as securities, including XRP, Telegram’s Gram (TON), LBRY Credits (LBC), OmiseGo (OMG), DASH (DASH), Algorand (ALGO), 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).
In addition, the SEC has deemed that these 13 Mirror Protocol mAssets are securities: 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), Mirrored ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (mVIXY).
The SEC’s litigated remit of the crypto space means it now covers over $100 billion worth of the market, or around 10% of the $1.09 trillion total crypto market capitalization.