The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigates the activities of creators of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the market. According to the SEC, it must be investigated whether tokens of this type are being used as traditional securities.
In addition to creators, NFT marketplaces are also targeted by SEC, chaired by Gary Gensler. The commission wants to know if these platforms are violating U.S. regulatory principles.
Although it has not confirmed the investigation, SEC may be acting to understand how the fractioning of NFTs work. In this case, a group of investors comes together to buy tokens.
The SEC can understand this type of collective investment as a traditional security investment. Thus, like shares on the stock exchange, the sale of fractional NFTs needs authorization from the commission to operate in the financial market.
Bitcoin and ether do not suffer the same distrust from the SEC, as they are considered currency. However, the commission also keeps an eye on crypto assets such as XRP, considered the sixth-largest in the crypto market by capitalization volume.
SEC is investigating other forms of crypto assets offerings, such as the famous ICOs. Telegram and EOS, for example, have been investigated by the commission due to token offerings.
Recently, the SEC warned that North Korean hackers are responsible for a hack on the Ronin network. In total, US$625 million in crypto assets were hijacked from the platform, created by the same developers as Axie Infinitiy.
