Regulation: artists sue the SEC for confusion over NFTs

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Still confusion in the field of regulation in the USA: two artists have sued the SEC, drawing a comparison between their NFT Art sold on the secondary market and Taylor Swift concert tickets. 

Regulation: artists rebel against the SEC for the confusion regarding NFTs

Two artists sued the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the USA for the confusion regarding NFTs.

Specifically, the two plaintiff artists, Brian Frye and Jonathon Mann, have requested clarifications on security laws and Non-Fungible Tokens. 

In practice, their lawyers have asked if crypto artists are required to “register” their NFT art before selling it to the public. Not only that, another clarification concerns whether artists must disclose information about the “risks” of purchasing their art. 

The issue was raised after some actions could trigger US security laws when creating and selling art NFT.

The lawyers then made a comparison between the sale of NFT Art on the secondary market and Taylor Swift concert tickets, which are often also sold on the secondary market. 

In this sense, for Frye and Mann it would be absurd for the SEC to classify NFTs as security. 

NFT Regulation and the lawsuit against the SEC by crypto artists

Speaking of art, just like Taylor Swift sells tickets for concerts also on the secondary market and releases statements to promote those events, the two crypto artists should do the same with their NFTs. 

In both cases, the SEC of the USA is not required to intervene. 

Here is what the document states:

“Although Jonathan Mann and Brian Frye are different from Taylor Swift in many ways, in the context of this case they are in exactly the same position. They are artists and want to create and sell their digital art without the SEC investigating or suing them.”

The sector in crisis compared to the boom of 2021

Recently, the market of NFTs has been analyzed which seems to be still in deep crisis, at least compared to the boom of 2021. 

And indeed, in January 2021, the total monthly trading volumes of NFTs on the market had surpassed 100 million dollars for the first time. 

Not only that, in January 2022, a year later, the same had risen to over six billion dollars, recording a 60x. 

After this amazing growth, since 2023 a long bear-market has arrived which seems to be still ongoing.