OpenSea Receives SEC Wells Announcement, Month’s NFT Sales Fall Below $400m: Nifty Newsletter
In this week's newsletter, find out how former US President Donald Trump launched his fourth NFT collection and read that the US Securities and Exchange Commission sent a notice to NFT marketplace OpenSea. See how crypto advocates reacted to the announcement, and Cointelegraph's interview with a Web3 executive explaining how NFTs could be classified as securities. In other news, monthly sales of NFTs fell below $400 million for the first time in 2024.
Trump's fourth NFT inventory saw $2.2 million in sales.
Former US President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump has released a fourth foray into the world of NFTs with a trading card collection called America First. The collection received massive support when it launched, netting Trump $2.2 million in crypto.
However, some community members were unhappy with Trump's NFT project. One member of the community said the NFT project made the former president's crypto push feel like a “slap”.
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OpenSea Marketplace will receive a notification from the SEC
NFT marketplace OpenSea has received a Welsh notice from the SEC, which suggests the agency may take action against the company in the future. Devin Finzer, CEO of OpenSea, said the SEC has filed charges that NFTs on the platform may be unregistered securities.
OpenSea CEO: Targeting NFTs stifles innovation and puts innovators at risk Finzer also said that most of these artists do not have the resources to defend themselves if the SEC takes action.
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Crypto advocates criticize SEC announcement for OpenSea
Following the SEC's Wells notice to OpenSea, crypto advocates have gone online to show their support and demand the regulator's action. Ji Kim, chief legal and policy officer at the Crypto Council for Innovation, described the SEC's assertion that NFT platforms should be regulated like securities exchanges as “absolutely ridiculous” and “legally wrong.”
Rep. Willie Nickell of North Carolina said on X, “It's sad to see the SEC's continued regulatory enforcement.” The representative said the SEC should work with Congress to establish fair and transparent rules to foster innovation.
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NFTs may be securities, but SEC Wells announcement for OpenSea ‘not fruitful' – lawyer
While the SEC's allegations were “ineffective,” one attorney suggested that NFTs could be securities in some cases. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Oscar Franklin Tan, chief legal officer of Web3 firm Atlas Development, explained that some of the use cases for NFTs resemble investment products.
According to Tan, NFTs sound like securities, making share certificates and offering dividends. However, Tan believes these are not the NFTs people expect on a platform like OpenSea.
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Monthly NFT sales fell below $400 million, a yearly low.
Monthly sales of digital collections fell to $374 million in August, marking the lowest point in 2024. Data from CryptoSlam shows that NFTs are down 76 percent from their record high monthly sales of $1.6 billion this year.
In August, NFTs saw a 31% drop in transaction volume. Despite this, the average price of an NFT sale increased from $39.93 to $50.74, an increase of 27%.
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Thanks for reading this recap of the week's most notable developments in the NFT space. Come back next Wednesday for more reports and insights into this actively growing space.
