The SEC complaint stripped off the "underpants": the giants have been planted in the currency circle in recent years

The US Securities Regulatory Commission (SEC) sued the two major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase this week, which shocked the entire currency circle, and also exposed a number of industry giants from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, entertainment industry, fashion industry and even the world's top football clubs. After several years of struggling for the status quo of the currency circle, they are all participating in the financing or cooperation of cryptocurrency accused by the SEC of being illegal. **

The following are some well-known currency circle projects or cooperations specifically mentioned in the SEC indictment. They either involve unregistered securities financing in violation of securities laws, or some project participants have issued securities in violation of securities laws.

The most recent one is that on April 7 this year, the NEAR Foundation, which develops the NEAR blockchain, announced that Tekuno, one of the most creative NEAR Balkans Hub projects, recently partnered with Mastercard to provide a unique reality The world's non-fungible token (NFT) experience.

The SEC’s complaint alleges that NEAR, the native token of the NEAR blockchain protocol, is a security not registered with the SEC.

There were two projects that happened last year. Among them, on March 16 last year, HSBC and The Sandbox, a decentralized virtual game based on blockchain, announced a cooperation, becoming the first global financial service institution to enter The Sandbox metaverse. HSBC will purchase a virtual plot LAND in The Sandbox metaverse, develop on the plot, interact and establish good connections with sports, e-sports and game enthusiasts.

The SEC’s prosecution documents show that the digital token SAND issued by The Sandbox platform is an unregistered security.

On November 1 last year, Protocol Labs, Filecoin Foundation, Ernst & Young, one of the Big Four accounting firms, and other founding members announced the launch of the Decentralized Storage Alliance.

The statement at the time stated that EY is committed to the blockchain public chain, focusing on putting the tools, systems and services needed in place to help the public sector and private enterprises use blockchain technology to solve the most pressing issues of the ecosystem, including privacy, security and regulatory compliance. EY's ability to test and audit transactions in a blockchain environment gives businesses the confidence to move from simply tracing on the blockchain to transacting across the entire enterprise lifecycle.

Filecoin Foundation, one of the founding members of the above-mentioned alliance, provides the distributed storage network Filecoin's native encrypted asset FIL as an unregistered security.

On April 30, 2021, Dapper Labs, which developed the Flow blockchain, announced that it had obtained $250 million in new financing, led by the hedge fund Coatue, and introduced that, in addition to Coatue, Dapper Labs' well-known investors include Silicon Valley's top venture capital Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Union Square Ventures, Venrock, BOND, sovereign wealth fund Singapore Government Investment Corporation (GIC), Google Ventures (GV), Samsung, founder of Dreamworks, Reddit, Coinbase, Zynga, AngelList, etc.

According to the SEC, FLOW, the native token of the FLOW blockchain, is an unregistered security.

On May 18, 2021, Sygnum Bank announced that it has become the first bank to provide custody and banking services for Internet Computer blockchain utility tokens.

The SEC pointed out that ICP, the native token of the Internet Computer Protocol blockchain, is an unregistered security.

On June 9, 2021, Solana Labs, the developer of the Solana blockchain, completed a $314.15 million private token sale, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Polychain Capital, a venture capital in the cryptocurrency field.

In accusing the exchange, the SEC pointed out that the token SOL of the Solana blockchain is a security that is not registered with the SEC.

On October 26, 2021, Samsung invested in blockchain game unicorn Axie Infinity. AXZ, the native token of a game like Axie Infinity, is an unregistered security, the SEC said.

A relatively long-term cooperation in the currency circle took place on February 20, 2020. La Liga giants FC Barcelona (Barcelona) announced at that time that they had reached a global cooperation agreement with Chiliz, a blockchain-based sports and entertainment fan interaction platform. Through Chiliz The fan voting and reward platform Socios.com allows fans and Barcelona to interact in an innovative way. Fans can use digital assets called Barça Fan Tokens to participate in various surveys and votes related to the daily activities of the Barcelona club.

The Chiliz blockchain’s native token, CHZ, is an unregistered security, the SEC said.

Additionally, the SEC complaint states that Polygon blockchain’s native token, MATIC, is an unregistered security. The Polygon blockchain has released many cooperations in the past few years.

Among them, on October 18, 2021, Polygon announced that it has reached a strategic blockchain agreement with sports betting company DraftKings, saying that the online payment processing company Stripe will be the first to support payments with the stablecoin USDC linked to the US dollar, and the payment will be made through the Polygon network. The network was chosen for its low fees, speed, integration with the Ethereum blockchain, and compatibility with multiple wallets.

On January 20 last year, Adidas and Prada partnered with Polygon Studios to develop an NFT project on the Polygon network, featuring user-generated and created art.

On September 12 last year, Starbucks announced the launch of Starbucks Odyssey, a new experience supported by Web3 technology, which will provide Starbucks Reward members, Starbucks partners and employees in the United States with the opportunity to earn and purchase digital collection assets. Starbucks said it will use proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain technology developed by Polygon, which consumes less energy than first-generation PoS blockchains.

On Nov. 10 last year, Polygon announced a partnership with Disney to develop a proof-of-concept for an exclusive digital collection that would identify Disney employees on special occasions.