Cardano blockchain builder Input Output Global (IOG) has rejected the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) claims that ADA is a security. The SEC had argued in lawsuits levied against two of the world’s biggest crypto brands this week that Cardano’s native token ADA and several other coins qualify as securities.
“Under No Circumstances Is ADA A Security”: IOG
Input Output Global has responded to SEC’s recent claim that ADA is an unregistered security.
In a June 7 statement, the Cardano developers refuted the SEC’s assertion, positing that “under no circumstances is ADA a security under U.S. securities laws. It never has been.”
IOG pointed out the lack of understanding of decentralized blockchains and stressed the importance of formulating responsible legislation in collaboration with regulators. The statement further notes that the regulation-by-enforcement approach employed by the SEC does not provide the clarity that the cryptocurrency industry is entitled to. IOG advocates for regulation that recognizes blockchain’s unique traits and the key role it can play in the modern world.
SEC Lawsuits And Possible Robinhood Delisting
The SEC sued Coinbase on Tuesday, just one day after the securities watchdog sued Binance for unregistered securities offerings. A core pillar of the SEC’s charges against Binance and BAM Trading — the operator of Binance.US — is that the two commingled customers’ funds. In fact, the SEC has filed a new court document alleging that Binance and Binance.US redirected more than $12 billion worth of customer assets to firms controlled by Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao between 2019 and 2021.
The SEC claims America’s largest digital asset exchange Coinbase operated for years as an unlicensed securities exchange and “elevated its interest in increasing its profits over investors’ interests.”
In these two lawsuits, the SEC publicly declared which cryptocurrencies are in its sights. The regulator considers the following to be securities: Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Filecoin (FIL) and Sandbox (SAND), among several others. If these tokens were to be officially categorized as securities under federal laws, this could have profound ramifications for investors and crypto exchanges, likely altering the outlook of the crypto industry in the U.S.
Amid these growing regulatory concerns, online trading brokerage Robinhood has revealed it may soon cease offering trading services for several cryptocurrencies implicated in the SEC lawsuit, including ADA, to comply with U.S. securities laws. The potential removal of ADA from Robinhood’s trading platform comes less than a year after the company announced support for the peer-reviewed Proof of Stake (PoS) cryptocurrency. Robinhood listed ADA in September 2022 as part of a broader expansion of the company’s cryptocurrency offerings that year.
