SEC Commissioner Supports Using NFTs to Raise Funds For Crypto Startups

SEC Crypto Activity Drive lead, Hester Peirce, has said that NFT-based fundraising tasks like Stoner Cats and Flyfish Membership must be exempt from securities laws.

Peirce stated that regulatory readability may quickly comply with the company’s current determination to declassify proof-of-work crypto mining inside safety legal guidelines.

“We may do it on NFTs as nicely,” she said. “If we may present some sort of framework or some sort of markers for [NFT issuers] to look to, I believe it could possibly be fairly useful.”

“Offering a framework or pointers for NFT issuers to reference could possibly be useful,” she added. “We are able to make an announcement of an exemptive nature relating to NFTs.”

The SEC beneath Gary Gensler closely scrutinized NFTs as potential securities. Peirce indicated that future SEC steering would possibly exclude artwork NFTs from securities classification.

Stoner Cats, an animated collection produced by actress Mila Kunis, raised $8 million by way of NFT gross sales, providing consumers unique entry to the present. These NFTs have been resellable, with a 2.5% royalty on secondary gross sales benefiting the creators. Equally, Flyfish Membership raised $14 million through NFT gross sales to fund a non-public restaurant, granting membership entry whereas additionally incorporating a resale royalty construction.

Nevertheless, the NFT market is not the once-thriving atmosphere it was once. As reported by Decrypt, “The NFT market suffered a dismal 2024, with buying and selling volumes and gross sales counts dropping to their weakest ranges since 2020. Annual buying and selling volumes fell by 19%, whereas gross sales counts dipped by 18% in comparison with 2023, in accordance with a report by blockchain analytics platform.”

Peirce additionally clarified that an NFT’s exemption from securities legal guidelines would rely on its construction. “You might have an NFT that’s a tokenized safety, and it could possibly be structured as an NFT,” she stated. “Clearly that’s not going to be carved out.”

Final week, Canary Capital has submitted a submitting to the SEC for the creation of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that can observe PENGU, the governance token for the Pudgy Penguin ecosystem.

Canary Capital Information For Pudgy Penguin $PENGU NFT ETF However We’re Not Certain Why

Canary Capital recordsdata for a first-of-its-kind ETF monitoring Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU token, NFTs & crypto, regardless of a struggling NFT market

The ETF would additionally embody Pudgy Penguin NFTs and different digital property like Solana and Ethereum to facilitate transactions, marking the primary ETF to include NFTs alongside cryptocurrencies.