US regulator launches investigation against the most popular NFT collection BAYC

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to fight blockchain technologies and the NFT industry. This time, Yuga Labs, whose representatives created one of the most popular NFT collections, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has been caught. According to the agency, bored monkeys can be securities, and Yuga Labs allegedly violated US laws.

As Bloomberg journalists found out, in addition to the BAYC collection, the regulator has questions about the ApeCoin (APE) cryptocurrency, which can also be considered a security. Representatives of Yuga Labs calmly reacted to the SEC’s accusations and said they were ready to cooperate.

«It is well known that politicians and regulators are eager to learn more about the new world of Web3. We look forward to working with industry representatives and regulators to shape the evolving ecosystem,» Yuga Labs emphasized. It’s not the first time the company has been at the center of a scandal — in late September, the world’s most famous hacker group accused Yuga Labs of extremism. «Right now, we want to announce that without a shadow of a doubt, Anonymous is confident that Bored Ape and the Yuga Labs brand are infected with not one or two, but dozens of examples of esoteric symbolism that reflect support for Nazism, racism, and pedophilia ,» the hackers said at the time

Perhaps representatives of Yuga Labs should talk to Ripple Labs, which has been fighting with the Securities Commission for two years in a row — Ripple representatives were accused of illegally selling unregistered securities. Members of the cryptocurrency community hope that Ripple will succeed in obtaining a positive court decision. In any case, the outcome of the litigation between Ripple and the US regulator will have significant consequences for the entire cryptocurrency industry.

The publication of the so-called Hinman documents will play an important role in the confrontation between Ripple and the SEC. William Hinman is a former director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, and the Hinman documents refer to one of his speeches during which the regulator stated that Ethereum is not a security. According to Ripple Labs, Hinman’s documents are an important argument in the court case — if ETH is not a security, then XPR cannot be considered one either. It was Hinman who was accused of bribery by the notorious blogger BitBoy Crypto.