The post SEC’s Mango settlement reiterates its case that SOL is a security appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Today, enjoy the Lightspeed newsletter on Blockworks.co. Tomorrow, get the news delivered directly to your inbox. Subscribe to the Lightspeed newsletter.  In a Friday news dump, the SEC announced that it had settled its case with Mango Markets, a Solana-based DeFi platform that the SEC claims was trafficking in unregistered securities.  As part of the deal, Mango DAO and the related Blockworks Foundation (which, as funny as that would be, is not the same as the Blockworks media company sending you this newsletter) will have to pay up “nearly $700,000” in penalties and destroy their MNGO while also removing the native token of Mango Markets from other trading platforms.  The move was telegraphed after the DAO voted to allow for an SEC settlement a month ago. Five days ago, it also voted to settle with the CFTC, which means Mango DAO will likely be on the hook for even more settlement money soon. None of this is very surprising, as Mango has been in regulator crosshairs ever since Avi Eisenberg made off with $110 million in funds by employing a “highly profitable trading strategy” in 2022. But in the settlement’s fine print, unveiled Friday, we got a renewed glimpse into the SEC’s case for SOL being a security. In a section about “Crypto Assets that are Offered and Sold as Securities” near the end of the Mango Markets complaint, the SEC lays out the story of SOL: It was sold by Solana Labs to investors near the beginning of Solana’s existence to fund the development of the blockchain. In the time since, the SEC alleges, Solana Labs and the Solana Foundation have tried to “increase value and demand for SOL.” Thus, SOL fails the Howey test, a measuring stick for securities that everyone deep in crypto knows by heart at this…

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Filed under: News - @ September 30, 2024 6:22 pm