The post OpenSea pushes back against SEC oversight on NFT marketplaces appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

OpenSea has called on the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to officially exclude NFT marketplaces from being classified as exchanges under federal securities laws. In a letter sent to SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, OpenSea’s legal department, led by the general counsel, Adele Faure, and Laura Brookover, the deputy general counsel of OpenSea, argued that NFT platforms operate differently from traditional exchanges.  Their arguments were that NFT marketplaces do not transact, mediate, or provide platforms in which multiple buyers and sellers trade P2P and identical products, which are key exchange features. The legal team also shared that numerous enforcement actions made by the SEC made the crypto market rather uncertain. OpenSea cited the need for clarity to safeguard American tech firms and encourage the growth of innovation in the NFT space. They also asked the Crypto Task Force at the SEC to provide informal advice on the legal status of NFT marketplaces, as per the agency’s recent clarifications on memecoins and stablecoins. “In preparing this guidance, the Crypto Task Force should specifically address the application of exchange regulations to marketplaces for non-fungible assets, similar to the recent staff statements on memecoins and stablecoins.” ~ OpenSea. OpenSea challenges Broker registration requirements In addition to the exchange classification issue, OpenSea has rejected any SEC classification that considers NFT marketplaces as brokers. According to Faure and Brookover, OpenSea and similar NFT marketplaces do not qualify for the broker definition because they do not provide advice, trade, and hold their customers’ funds. They urged the SEC to clarify remaining uncertainty in the industry by providing guidance that states that NFT marketplaces cannot be classified as brokers under federal securities laws. OpenSea also suggested to the Commission that any NFT marketplace should be excluded from any future broker’s regulation. This stance comes at a…

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Filed under: News - @ April 10, 2025 9:22 am