US SEC Says Filecoin Is a Security in Comment Letter to Grayscale

According to a statement from Grayscale Investments, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has determined that a file coin is considered a security. Grayscale received a comment from the SEC staff expressing this view, stating that Filecoin meets the definition of a security under federal securities laws and appears to qualify as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Consequently, the SEC requested that Grayscale withdraw its registration statement for Grayscale Filecoin Trust shares. However, Grayscale disagreed with the SEC’s position and intended to respond to SEC staff. Future outcomes and potential actions, such as seeking accommodations or dissolving trust, remain uncertain.

Following this news, the value of Filecoin experienced a rapid decline, dropping from approximately $4.59 at 4:05 p.m. to about 15 cents lower twenty minutes later. By 5 p.m. ET on Wednesdays, Filecoin’s value stabilized closer to $4.54, according to CoinMarketCap.

Filecoin is a cryptocurrency that enables decentralized peer-to-peer file storage and uses FIL tokens for transactions. This recent determination by SEC marks Filecoin as the latest cryptocurrency to be classified as a security. It is worth noting that SEC Chair Gary Gensler repeatedly expressed the opinion that most cryptocurrencies are securities. In a previous enforcement action against Bittrex, the SEC identified other cryptocurrencies, including OMG, Dash, ALGO, Monolith (TKN), Naga (NGC), and the IHT Real Estate Protocol (IHT), as unregistered securities offerings.

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