The Securities and Exchange Commission has provided little clarity over rules on NFTs, and that needs to change, according to Commissioner Hester Peirce.
NFTs are one particular area where we could provide some guidelines. Peirce singled out governance NFTs, which give owners a say in how an organization is run, and in some cases a share of its profits. Also well as fractional NFTs, which are split and sold in multiple pieces, as digital assets that could fall under U.S. securities law.
“If an NFT were a security and someone did make misrepresentations about it, then they’ve got a securities fraud kind of issue,” Peirce added. The comments from Peirce come as the SEC is probing the NFT industry with an investigation that includes both exchanges and creators.
In May, the regulator nearly doubled the number of employees in its Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, which looks into the crypto industry.