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SEC Declares Memecoins Are Not Subject to Oversight
- wslh 2y agohttps://archive.is/VRaZQ https://archive.is/VRaZQ
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- duxup 2y agoConsidering the Trump profited from his own meme coin this just seems like more cronyism / self dealing and so forth … Meme coins seem like the perfect bribery system.
- floatrock 2y agoCorrect. In the past we had to offload palettes of cheap Chinese-printed bibles or guilded sweatshop sneakers for the illusion of "selling collectibles". Now we can skip the pretense of all that nasty physical-world foreplay and get straight to the cash. Need to grease the wheels of whatever deal you want to score with the US? Just drop a few MM onto some glorified digital pokemon cards. Not enough liquidity? Oh don't worry, the family-owned reserve spigot's about to open up with an announcement of The Greatest Coindrop of the month. And now you need not be concerned about the SEC snooping around at your preference of pokemon card or who is buying them. We've just made government corruption far more efficient.
- ano-ther 2y agoThey treat them as collectibles with ”limited or no use.“ That makes sense, but isn’t quite supporting the crypto-world’s preferred narrative. > Although individual meme coins may have unique features, meme coins typically share certain characteristics. Meme coins typically are purchased for entertainment, social interaction, and cultural purposes, and their value is driven primarily by market demand and speculation. In this regard, meme coins are akin to collectibles. Meme coins also typically have limited or no use or functionality. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/staff-statement-meme-coins https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/staff-state...
- terminalbraid 2y agoUnless "purchasing" and "paying for" are no longer forms of "social interaction" (i.e. interacting with society), I'm not sure how this differentiates it from literally any financial instrument, fiat included. This is an ambiguous and poorly divided line with loopholes you can drive a burning cybertruck through.
- ethbr1 2y agoTo be fair, a cybertruck is also a collectible with "limited or no use."
- sidewndr46 2y agoBut is still subject to a significant degree of oversight
- terminalbraid 2y agoand less than I would like.
- tremon 2y agoBut not from the SEC
- crest 2y ago[flagged]
- skybrian 2y agoUS Courts use the Howey Test to decide what counts as a security: * It is an investment of money * There is an expectation of profits from the investment * The investment of money is in a common enterprise * Any profit comes from the efforts of a promoter or third-party https://www.findlaw.com/consumer/securities-law/what-is-the-howey-test.html https://www.findlaw.com/consumer/securities-law/what-is-the-... If you read further in the SEC statement, they explain why typical meme coins fail the Howey Test. > [T]he promoters of meme coins are not undertaking (or indicating an intention to undertake) managerial and entrepreneurial efforts from which purchasers could reasonably expect profit. They should probably be regulated as a gambling game, though, and can sometimes be used as money laundering or bribery, as a way to pay the original sellers without revealing what they’re really paying for.
- westurner 2y agoBy SEC, or in law in the US because DOGE? Can QBT Qualified Blind Trusts own memecoins, or is that still a conflict of interest? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43201808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43201808
- bananapub 2y agotrump sets the direction of SEC enforcement and he's made it clear that he thinks he (and everyone else) should be able to rob normal people via cryptocurrency.
- westurner 2y agoSo do we blame Biden or Trump for delisting XRP, or is SEC respectably independent? What about CFTC and FTC and the CAT Consolidated Audit Trail; are collectibles over 10K exempt from KYC and AML there too? (By comparison, banks put days-long holds on large checks.)
- heartbreak 2y agoThe SEC was respectably independent until a few days ago. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/ensuring-accountability-for-all-agencies/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/ensu...
- myvoiceismypass 2y agoWhy exactly would Biden take any blame here?
- zdragnar 2y agoOperation Chokepoint 2.0, presumably
- rayiner 2y agoThere's no such thing as an "independent" executive-branch agency. Congress can't by law create new branches of government.
- malcolmgreaves 2y agoThe corruption of the SEC has begun in earnest now.
- tripplyons 2y agoIt's the corruption of the whole executive branch.
- bananapub 2y agoit really is astonishing how good the RoI on corruption in the US is. the crypto industry donated a few hundred million dollars to Trump and now they get to pump and dump and steal from civilians at an unlimited scale, with the President himself encouraging it. it's just astonishingly good value if you have no morals at all.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- techorange 2y agoDo they want this though? R/cryptocurrency is not happy, and if you want crypto legitimacy; wasn’t part of the complaint of the crypto industry that the SEC was too slow to make rules?
- duxup 2y agoMy thoughts: I suspect the folks who are interested in the cryptocurrency "ethos" as it was in the Bitcoin Whitepaper are not happy (although I think that ethos is exceptionally naive, I can at least respect it). I think they see the scams as real roadblocks to adoption and just a bad look / way to operate. I do suspect that the vast majority of the crypto currency "community" are now just motivated by greed and/or other immoral activity like bribery, fraud, crime etc. So yes I think some of the more thoughtful crypto community are disappointed .. but in reality much (in terms of dollars) of it really don't care.
- bananapub 2y agocryptocurrency fans probably don't like it, since they are the ones going to be robbed and also have to listen to their friends complain about them encouraging them to be robbed, too. the cryptocurrency industry love it and paid for it because it allows them to do unlimited crime against others with no consequences. this isn't just a This Term Of Trump problem, either - letting these sociopaths get even richer now means they'll form a new layer of poison in the financial system for decades to come and have enormous influence regulation and politics.
- whynotmaybe 2y agoWhat is the difference between a memecoin and crypto currency?
- desumeku 2y agoIntent.
- from-nibly 2y agoCryptocurrency is an object, it can't have any intent.
- desumeku 2y agoThis may be news, but most objects are made by people, who are quite capable of having intent.
- SecretDreams 2y agoI reject your intent to educate!
- from-nibly 2y agoThat was my point. It's the people who have intent.
- ForTheKidz 2y agoWhy does that matter in this case?
- desumeku 2y agoI also wanted to say "function", because the main distinguishing factor is that 'real' crypto assets are designed to perform some economic or financial purpose whilst memecoins are not.
- 2y ago
- desumeku 2y agoThis title is misleading. "Not a security" does not mean "no oversight". > “Although the offer and sale of memecoins may not be subject to the federal securities laws, fraudulent conduct related to the offer and sale of memecoins may be subject to enforcement action or prosecution by other federal or state agencies,” said the statement, from the S.E.C.’s division of corporation finance.
- tripplyons 2y agoI think it only refers to there being no more oversight from the SEC.
- rtkwe 2y agoTitle is accurate, SEC talking about Oversight just means SEC Oversight they just speak for themselves.
- exabrial 2y agoWhat a win! Next, we should make progress on crypto is a security (A self fulfilling prophecy).
- this_user 2y agoI think even trying to regulate the crypto sector is a mistake, because it legitimises something that serves virtually no useful purpose and makes people think that crypto is a real asset class rather than just a huge casino. Therefore, my counter proposal is that crypto should simply be treated as a PVP-enabled MMO.
- lukev 2y agoWhat does this actually mean? Most MMOs don't let you convert your in-game currency back to real-world money. For those that do, is there actually a regulatory framework around that?
- robertlagrant 2y agoYou can get paid to farm gold, I think. That's sort-of equivalent?
- cheeseomlit 2y agoPersonally I don't know of any MMOs that allow in-game currency to be 'cashed out', thats pretty much always a bannable offense
- 15155 2y agoSecond Life has operated the Lindex service for more than a decade.
- rtkwe 2y agoNot really a game though, it's the Ur Metaverse-y thing, but ultimately a vast complex chat room, if we forget there's the Game being left off MMO it becomes a way less useful term. Too much starts falling into that category, social media sites can tumble in.
- vharuck 2y agoPvP MMOs tend to all have a similar make-up of players. At the top are the elite griefers prey on noobs, and beside them are the elite duelists who challenge each other. The griefers and duelists don't interact too much. Below them are the middle-skill players. They have enough fun to keep playing, but lose more than they win; they put serious effort into becoming an elite. At the bottom are the noobs, who join with dreams of making it big (some may), but mostly serve as cattle for other players. A lot of the noobs will get discouraged after repeated ganking and leave the game. The game only thrives if there's a steady stream of new players to replace the numerous quitters. If there aren't enough, the middle-skilled will become the new bottom and start losing way more often. So they'll start quitting. When enough of them do, the griefers won't have as much fun and will leave. That just leaves the duelists in an otherwise empty world. It's not as fulfilling to say you're the best fighter in a dead game. Then a new PvP MMO appears. Everyone is new, so the griefers aren't yet overpowered. New players flock to it. Eventually, the duelists from the first game see another game with a much more vibrant community. So they'll go there. The parallels with crypto actually make sense.
- internetter 2y agoCrypto shouldn't be regulated. It's explicit purpose is to bypass the regulation overhead of fiat, stick it to the man so to speak. The fallout of things like FTX is a natural consequence of the crypto community's wishes and the government stepping in to bailout and prosecute is contrary. FAFO imo.
- fourside 2y agoNothing says “stick it to the man” like having heads of state and some of the wealthiest people on the world be heavily invested and doing business with crypto.
- hiq 2y agoWhat do we do if crypto becomes important enough such that events such as FTX downfall have an impact on non-crypto activities?
- mrguyorama 2y agoWe are sure working our assess off to make another financial panic and Great Depression.
- tim333 2y agoThing with FTX is it was sold as a regular investment via superbowl ads etc. I'm not sure it needs special regulations, different from those for buying and selling used cars, beanie babies etc. but should still be subject to basic stuff like don't steal your clients money.
- flowerthoughts 2y agoThe biggest problem there was all the talk of FDIC secured deposits as a way to legitimize the centralized crypto exchanges. First, don't advertise falsehoods, obviously. Second, if your money is tied up as Beanie Babies, the question whether they are stored in high security vaults or a shed is a dangerous red herring.
- danielvf 2y agoThe headline currently shown here "SEC Declares Memecoins Are Not Subject to Oversight" is wrong, which is throwing discussions off here. The actual decision is that memecoins are not "Securities", and therefor not subject to regulations that apply to Securities. This makes a lot of sense. If you pick up a cool rock off the ground, and just sell it to someone, it's not a security. If people are buying and selling wheat, it doesn't make wheat a security. As skybrian said, the US test for a security is the Howely test. * It is an investment of money * There is an expectation of profits from the investment * The investment of money is in a common enterprise * Any profit comes from the efforts of a promoter or third-party Memecoins don't fit it at all.
- outside1234 2y agoThere are no principles here people. They were bribed and are delivering.
- thrance 2y agoWith the president & his wife running their own cryptoscams, how could the ruling have been any different? Is anyone surprised by this outcome?
- takinola 2y agoSerious question, who is still buying memecoins? Why do they do it? The graph for each memecoin is essentially the same - a quick runup followed by a sharp drop to a flatline. Who still thinks putting money into these things is a good idea?
- nativeit 2y agoCan anyone take Dogecoin and Bitcoin and make a reasonably objective distinction between their potential utility and function, even if their respective cultural contexts were not involved?
- tomcik1 2y ago[dead]
- mackcarlton51 2y ago[dead]